Was this the first Bermuda home?

A team of archeologists will return to Bermuda this summer to explore what could be the ‘holy grail’ of historic sites.

Experts believe they may have found the spot where Bermuda’s first three settlers — Christopher Carter, Edward Waters and Edward Chard — set up camp on Smith’s Island in 1610.

And they will set to work next month to find further historic proof and artifacts to back up that claim.

The location of the ‘Three Kings House’ — where Carter, Waters and Chard grew crops while waiting for reinforcements from England — has remained a mystery for centuries.

But a major project to unearth the secrets of Smith’s Island uncovered a large, deep oven and a flat cut stone face deep in the undergrowth that could be the remnants of the trio’s homestead.

The discovery of a feral hog’s tusk in the oven also suggests the cabin was occupied at around the time Carter, Waters and Chard were there.

The initiative to explore Smith’s Island began in 2010.

And it has been spearheaded by Dr Michael Jarvis from the University of Rochester with the help of Bermudian historian Rick Spurling, other local groups and volunteers.

They will return to the Cotton Hole Bight site next month to continue their ground-breaking historical work.

Dr Jarvis told the Sun: “We will be looking for the smoking gun when we return to the site this time.

“It needs to come in the form of early artifacts so we can say this was definitely the spot where Carter, Chard and Waters set up the first farm.

“These guys were the first three people to choose to live in Bermuda so it would be huge to say for sure that we had found the first house in Bermuda.”

Mr Spurling added: “This was an incredibly exciting find when we first came across it but there is still a great deal we can find out about it.

“We believe, from what we have seen so far, that the Cotton Hole Bight site could be the spot where Carter, Waters and Chard set up camp when the Patience returned to England. And if that is the case that is a huge discovery. It was their job to ‘hold’ Bermuda until the English returned and we know that they set up camp on Smith’s Island.

“This site we found could have been the ideal location for them to see ships approaching through the channel.

“They would have had to set up a cabin or temporary structure of some description and this spot at Cotton Bole Bight would have afforded them easy access to the water and a good area for planting crops.

“The rest of the shelter would probably have been timber framed and thatched with palmetto. 

“They would have had a clear view through cedars and palmetto trees looking east to the main channel entrance north of Smith’s Island.”

Dr Jarvis and a small team of archaeology students from the University of Rochester will arrive in Bermuda in late May.  

They will also return to a second site on Smith’s Island where a 17th century oven has been discovered.

The site, which is simply known as the ‘Oven Site’,  was first found in 2010 and since then a chimney, hearth and oven have been fully revealed.

The team also came across five worked chert flakes that had not been found in Bermuda before. 

The find suggests that the Oven Site could represent Boaz Sharpe’s household, which at the time of his death in 1707 was home to nine Native American slaves.

Dr Jarvis said: “I’m really excited and can not wait to get to Bermuda and carry on this work.

“We will be looking at the whole of Smith’s Island’s 60 acres. We will be exploring these two old sites we have already started working on as well as dozens of others.

“There is a lot more Smith’s Island has to tell. It is like reading chapters of a long, interesting book and we are only just at the beginning.” n