Dale's Pale Archeological District is a set of historic

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

s and national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

located near

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

Chesterfield County, Virginia Chesterfield County is located just south of Richmond, Virginia, Richmond in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. The county's borders are primarily defined by the James River to the north and the Appomattox River to the sout ...

. The district consists of a collection of four county owned archaeological sites. They are the location of a defensive palisade built by Sir

Thomas Dale Sir Thomas Dale ( 1570 − 19 August 1619) was an English naval commander and deputy-governor of the Virginia Colony in 1611 and from 1614 to 1616. Governor Dale is best remembered for the energy and the extreme rigour of his administration in ...

in 1613 around the original settlement at

Bermuda Hundred Bermuda Hundred was the first administrative division in the English colony of Virginia. It was founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1613, six years after Jamestown. At the southwestern edge of the confluence of the Appomattox and James Rivers oppos ...

, which he founded. It is a two mile long, berm-and-ditch feature, running between the high banks overlooking the James and Appomattox Rivers. The other sites within the district include a Middle Woodland Period (500 BC– AD 200) settlement, and a late 17th- or early 18th-century house with its associated dump. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2007.

References

Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Geography of Chesterfield County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Chesterfield County, Virginia Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia {{ChesterfieldCountyVA-NRHP-stub