Werowocomoco
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Werowocomoco Archaeological Site
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Powhatan in a longhouse at Werowocomoco (detail of John Smith map, 1612)
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| Location | 3051 Ginny Hill Rd., Gloucester, Virginia |
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| Coordinates | 37°24′43″N 76°38′56″W / 37.412°N 76.649°WCoordinates: 37°24′43″N 76°38′56″W / 37.412°N 76.649°W |
| Area | 45 acres (18 ha) |
| Built | 1607 |
| NRHP Reference # | 06000138 |
| VLR # | 036-5049 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | March 15, 2006 |
| Designated VLR | December 7, 2005 |
Werowocomoco was a town that served as the headquarters of the Powhatan, a Virginia Algonquian political and spiritual leader when the English founded Jamestown in 1607. The name Werowocomoco comes from the Powhatan werowans (weroance), meaning "leader" in English; and komakah (-comoco), "settlement". 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 the English settlement of 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 CE, with complex earthworks built about 1400 CE.
The area that the Native Americans considered Werowocomoco may have included both the newly identified Purtan Bay site and the site of Powhatan's Chimney site. The Gloucester County Board of Supervisors noted that in the Algonquian language the designation for the village of the chief was not a place name, but more correctly translated as a reference to the lands where he lived. The culture frequently relocated quarters within a general area.
Werowocomoco first became known to the early English settlers of Virginia as the residence of Wahunsenacawh or Wahunsonacock, the paramount weroance of the area. He and his people were known to them as Powhatan, a name derived from his native village, the small settlement of Powhatan, meaning the falls of the river, at the fall line of the James River (the present-day Powhatan Hill neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia later developed on the site). It is unknown when Wahunsenacawh/Powhatan moved to Werowocomoco. As a place already well-known to his people as a regional center, he may have wanted to make use of it because of its association with previous Native American leaders. While residing there, he received tribute from several Virginia Algonquian tribes in return for providing food in times of famine, military protection, and spiritual powers. Additionally, he distributed sacred materials such as copper and certain colors of shell beads. Werowocomoco was the site of several interactions between Powhatan and the English colonists.
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