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Preservation Virginia > Jamestown Rediscovery > Exhibit > Jamestown Fort: Rediscovered > The Things > Work and Play > Lead Toy

Lead Toy

Lead Toy This is a lead figurine of a boy who appears to be dancing. It is about 3 cm long and was found in the ca. 1610 context of Pit 3. It may be a toy brought for the amusement of an adult or child in the colony. There were probably a few women and children at Jamestown by the spring of 1610. Four boys were named among the first colonists who arrived in May 1607. It is also recorded that at least two children were born in Bermuda during the year that the survivors of the Sea Venture shipwreck lived there. A girl named Bermuda was born to John Rolfe and his first wife. She died and was buried on Bermuda before the colonists left for Virginia in May 1610, but there is no mention of the fate of a boy named Bermudas Eason who was born in March of that year.

The lead boy could also be an object intended for trade with the Indians. Eight similar leaden figures were recovered during explorations of a 1596 Dutch encampment in the arctic region of Nova Zembla. These toys, which are depicting classical mythological figures, were carried as trade goods by an expedition trying to find a north-east passage to China.




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