Werowocomoco

Common card · No. 368891

Werowocomoco was a village that served as the headquarters of Chief Powhatan. The name Werowocomoco comes from the Powhatan werowans (weroance), meaning "leader" in English; and komakah (-comoco), "settlement". It existed at the time the English founded the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. The town was documented by English settlers in 1608 as located near the north bank of the York River in what is now Gloucester County. It was separated by that river and the narrow Virginia Peninsula from Jamestown, located on the James River. Powhatan's Chimney at Wicomico, a site of historical ruins associated with a house purported to have been built for Powhatan, was long thought to have been the site of this capital. Its probable true site was tentatively identified by archaeologists in 2003 at a site on Purtan Bay, further west on the York River. Their survey and excavations revealed extensive artifacts, with habitation from the 13th into the 17th century. Its first settlement was dated about 1270...

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