Date:  1608

Image Number:  Image courtesy of With Good Reason, Virginia Humanities

Comments:  The Scottsville Museum sits on Monacan land.  There is no evidence that there ever was a permanent settlement here, but traces of Monacan people remain--arrowheads, fish hooks, and stone tools.  Just a little way down river was the most important Monacan site -- Rassawek -- at the confluence of the James and Rivanna Rivers (see blue spot on map above).  Rassawek was the capital city of the Monacan nation, established over 5000 years ago, and was the center of a population of about 15,000 in 1600.  It appears as one of the five Monacan towns on John Smith's 1608 map of Virginia.

In 1980, a gas pipeline was installed running through the site, disturbing Monacan burials.  When the James River Water Authority proposed further disruption to the site, installing a water intake and pumping station to carry river water to Zion Crossroads, the Monacans, newly energized by their recognition as the tribe by the federal government, took action.

"Our capital city," says Tribal Chief Kenneth Branham, "was a contemporary of Jamestown, but much larger and more complex, and it lasted as a community far longer.  Rassawek is for us a sacred place of great cultural significance, and it is for all Americans a place of historical importance."  In 2020, Rassawek was named one of America's 11 Most Endangered Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, after it was nominated by Preservation Virginia for the list.