The Minister of Youth, Culture and Sport, Ernest Peets, recently visited Smith’s Island, in St George’s, where archaeologists have been uncovering remnants of the possible first capital of Bermuda.

Michael Jarvis and his team of students from the University of Rochester, as well as Bermudian volunteers and a group from the University of Southampton in England, have been working on the site this summer.

The Smith’s Island Archaeological Project has partnered with the Bermuda National Trust, the Bermuda Government, the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo and the St George’s Foundation.

“[The purpose of this project] is to better understand Bermuda’s shared world history within a global, Atlantic world context,” a government spokesman said.

Dr Jarvis said that the team had a “compelling argument” that the site, spotted in April when ground-penetrating radar was brought to the island, is Bermuda’s first town of 410 years ago.

British settlers on their way to England’s Jamestown colony in Virginia stumbled upon Bermuda in 1609 when their ship, Sea Venture, got separated from its fleet in a hurricane and wrecked off the then uninhabited island.

The group managed to build two new ships and continue on to Virginia in 1610, leaving three settlers alone on Bermuda, on Smith’s Island, with the ship’s dog for company.