Ground penetrating radar tests at Roanoke Island’s Elizabethan Gardens may soon reveal the location of an Algonquian village, where local natives entertained the first English explorers to America’s shores in 1584, a spokesman for First Colony Foundation says. Results are expected by May.
Archaeologists this week unearthed further evidence of late 16th century English activity near reconstructed earthworks at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, although the discoveries — mostly fragments and shadows in dirt layers — are incremental details that will inform the First Colony Foundation’s meticulous effort to reconstruct a significant science laboratory discovered decades ago.
First Colony Foundation conducted small archaeological studies at Fort Raleigh between September 16 and September 24, 2021. The activities will include completion of excavation at the science laboratory west of the fort site.
Sections of the west bank of Albemarle Sound are undergoing heavy erosion, including the location of First Colony Foundation’s Site Y on the bluff at the Bertie County Beach Facility. To salvage what information could be saved from future erosion, FCF planned to examine in 2021 a 200’ by 25’ area along the edge of the bluff. Its first phase focused on an area where Roanoke Colony Period artifacts had been located.
There is not and probably will never be a Lost Colony “smoking gun.” Roanoke Colony Period Ceramics types found at Site X and Y in Bertie County, findings from the Zuniga and Virginea Pars maps helps answer the old question: Where did the settlers go?
Indications of 16th century occupation were discovered in Bertie County by a First Colony Foundation team of archaeologists.
On October 28th, First Colony Foundation was represented by Foundation Curator Bly Straube, Foundation Conservator Alexandra Klingelhofer, and Vice-President Eric Klingelhofer at the service in Westminster Abbey’s St Margaret’s Church commemorating the 400th year of Sir Walter Raleigh’s burial there. The service was led by the rector, Canon Jane Sinclair, the sermon on Raleigh was given by John Hall, Dean of the Abbey, and the organist … Read more
The achievements of Joachim Gans, a skilled metallurgist who accompanied the Lost Colony settlement, were recognized in a dignitary-rich celebration at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on July 27, 2018.
First Colony Foundation Vice President Eric Klingelhofer was informed of a problem by colleagues, historian Dr. James Horn and archaeologist Nick Luccketti. In the manuscript of Ivor Noel Hume’s report on the excavations he directed at Roanoke Island in the 1990’s, the picture of Thomas Harriot was found to be of someone else and not Thomas Harriot.
First Colony Foundation, in partnership with the local historical and theatrical group, Elizabeth R & Company, held a symposium in Manteo, October 27-28, to present recent research on the Roanoke colonies and mount an exhibit of Renaissance artifacts, Elizabethan costumes, and locally produced reproductions.