DIG IT?
I didn't know it was still lost, but I see in the papers that they have "found" what is thought to be the actual site of the village in which ought to be site from which Pocahontas' father Powhatan, held occasional sway over an amalgamation of twenty-some Early American groups.
I have been perfectly happy with the site we have been using for years. It is about twenty-three miles southeast of Richmond, Virginia as I recall and has long been considered to be the place at which the often told rescue of doomed explorer John Smith by Powhatan's sub-teen-aged (or, barely teen-ed, it is said) daughter. I have a feeling most of us agree the story itself has been romantically enhanced so where it is supposed to have taken place is moot. Some interpret the head bashing story as wrongful reading about what they say was a tribal ceremony or ritual in which an individual was being was being initiated into tribal secrets and as a friend and not an enemy.
The site called"“Wereowocococo" , was said to have been the main village form which Powhatan ruled over a total of , at best, fifteen thousand people. I have alway felt the name of that town would make a good tom-tom solo concerto. Sound it out a bit -WE-re-WO-co-CO-co!- three times in a harsh monotone and try to keep you feet still as you sing it
I have an idea they may have, at zeroed in on on some actual dwelling sites because the evidence is largely pottery shards extracted from the soil.. It is not too unusual to come cross surfaced specimens of arrowheads, beads, pottery shards and other such archaeological goodies almost anywhere in the area. Most people there have good collections of such Indian bric-a-brac.
This site has long been held to have been the eastern terminus of the trail westward. It crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains at what is now called Wood's Gap; came came down the west side of the range a bit southwest of where Grottoes is located today. It then worked it way southward along the edge mountains to find its western terminal at Beverley's Mill Place, which we know as Staunton, Va. The trail had a common-sense name. It was marked by trees along the trail being hit three times in horizontal chops with a sharp ax or hatchet. The name survives today as “Three Chopt Road” in the Richmond area.
Almost anytime someone sticks a spade in the soil of Tidewater,Virginia they seem to come up with a relic of some sort of interesting relic. Those of us looking to discover words have a good one in this particular dig. The name of the place is spelled and sounded as: We-ro-Wo-co-CO-co. Can't you imagine you hear the steady beating of a drum, maybe sounds of a flute carved from a twig, and lone voice singing:
”We-ro-Wo-co-CO-co!”
Sorta gets to you, doesn't it? Sing it again.
“We-ro-Wo-co-CO-co!”
A.L.M. May 8, 2003 [c749wds]
