A few shovelfuls of earth in a school yard or private driveway can uncover relics dating to the late 1500s, when English settlers landed on – and then mysteriously left – Roanoke Island 50 miles to the north.
Mark Horton, a professor and archaeologist from England’s University of Bristol, and local historian Scott Dawson have led digs in Buxton backyards and wooded lots within sight of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse every year since 2009.
Each trip turns up thousands of artifacts including coins, parts of guns and swords, and pieces of English clothing mingled with arrowheads, beads and rock tools of the natives. Most of the finds are American Indian in origin, but there are enough Elizabethan remnants, Dawson said, to show that the missing colonists assimilated with the natives on present-day Hatteras Island.
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3 comments:
Fascinating!
Have to get rid of it because afterall, we're in the process of eradicating US history. Guess they'll have to burn it.
Check out the Lost Colony research web sites and read the fascinating info regarding the these first colonists. Some researchers believe some dispersed to other areas, including the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland, and are looking for evidence through DNA and early deeds with names such as Brooks and Payne/Paine which are known to be associated with the first colonists and the Croatoans.
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