I’ve gotten a request by a loyal and extremely persistent friend (yes, John, that would be you) to post an explanation of what the next week has in store for me, so that y’all will be up to speed on the random tweets and status messages you may be seeing in the upcoming days. It has been tough to keep folks updated lately with the podcast temporarily derailed. Oh yeah, guess I should explain that, too…
Y’all may recall mention last month (or was it earlier?) of a burglary in my flat which resulted in the loss of my computer. Unfortunately, though it was my older laptop, all of my website data was stored on it via iWeb. That has meant that I can’t resume podcasting until I completely redo the website on my current computer and re-upload all of the contents. This may take awhile. In the meantime, I hope to be able to use this simpler medium of Tumblr to keep updating as often as I can. Luckily, I can post photos, video, and even audio here, so this may will probably be the spot for updates during my trip.
So what’s all this about a trip, you may ask?
Well, y’all are probably aware at this point that my continued presence in the UK is due to my having been picked up for a PhD at my current university, Bristol. I officially started at the beginning of October, but my topic has been a little up in the air. I was originally going to expand upon my masters thesis topic of rigging and sails, but my tutor proposed a slightly different plan a couple of months ago. He was offered the opportunity to investigate a few sites on an island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina which may be related to the Lost Colony of Roanoke. He had agreed to make a short trip to do a little survey and see if it was a viable site for excavation, but he suggested I come along as “the grad student,” and, if there was a big project to be had, I could take that on for my PhD. Essentially, a dissertation on Elizabethan New World colonization. I was game, but a little skeptical of the outcome of this survey. Still am. I agreed when I was told that we had enough funding to get us to the States and back and pay for everything while we’re there.
Here, though, I should pause and explain the Lost Colony for any non-Americans, or those who just fell asleep during that particular history class. Most folks are familiar with Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the current USA, with a founding date of 1607 and the colony name of Virginia. Virginia was actually founded more than twenty years before that, though, in the present day North Carolina and started at a place called Roanoke Island. Sir Walter Raleigh famously backed a handful of expeditions to this area, the most significant being a group of over 100 English settlers who set up a fortified village on Roanoke Island in 1587 under the governership of John White. It was only a few months later that they started encountering hardships with unfriendly tribes and supply shortages. John White decided to head back to England with many of the settlers for more supplies and people. Unfortunately, before his ships could make it out of England for the return voyage, the Spanish Armada attacked in 1588, and Raleigh’s ships were probably conscripted. As a result, White didn’t make it back until 1590, and, when he did, he found the settlement deserted with no sign of violence but also not much of a clue as to what happened to the settlers. It has remained one of the biggest mysteries in America to this day.
One of the problems for archaeologists in solving this mystery is that we don’t even know the exact site of the original settlement. We know it was on Roanoake Island near the present-day town of Manteo, and it has long been thought that the earthworks named Fort Raleigh were made by these settlers. Current thinking, though, suggests that these earthworks are more likely from the French and Indian War 150 years later. The original settlement could very well be underwater at this point. The other problem is that there are several possible scenarios for what happened to the colonists. Some think they moved inland, possibly toward the Great Dismal Swamp. Some think they moved but were then wiped out by the unfriendly tribes. Others think they may have moved to another island to live with a friendly tribe, the Croatoans. This last theory is the one we are looking at.
The Croatoan indians had a few villages on Croatan island (just west of the present-day Cape Hatteras). The settlers had been left with a small ship called a “pinnace” for use while the others were gone, so they could have relocated to another island. Surprisingly, only one excavation has ever been carried out on this island, and the results were not totally conclusive. One of the most important finds was a signet ring, but it wasn’t totally diagnostic. Since then, some landowners have occasionally picked up artifacts on their property, and one has become convinced that some of these artifacts may be Elizabethan. This is where we come in.
Cut to southwest England for a minute. There is evidence that several of Raleigh’s voyages left from the port town of Bideford in North Devon. The current mayor of Bideford started researching the Lost Colony thirty years ago as a young man curious about his family history. He found out that he may be a descendant of one of the 1587 colonists. When he became mayor of Bideford last year, he started to look for ways to promote his town and thought looking into its connection to the Lost Colony might be the key. He was in touch with a group of in the States, and the possibility of investigating this new evidence on Croatan island came up, at which point he contacted my tutor to see if he might be interested in coming in as the archaeological expert to see if the sites were viable. Since that first mention, things started to move pretty quickly. A local benefactor was found to fund a week’s survey, and I suddenly found myself up to my ears in books about Raleigh and Roanoke and the Lost Colony.
So here’s the plan…
My tutor and I board a plane tomorrow morning, which will touch down in Norfolk, Virginia that evening. From there, we pick up a rental car and drive the 3 1/2 or so hours to just past Hatteras. We’ll spend Sunday and Monday doing a little recce of the possible sites and formulating a plan of attack. By Monday night or Tuesday morning, the troops arrive in the form of a half dozen or so enthusiastic volunteers with varying levels of expertise on the subject. Among our eager team will be the mayor of Bideford himself, who has been warned that he shouldn’t bring his business suit, ‘cause he’ll be shoveling dirt like the rest of us! We should spend Tuesday through Friday doing the actual survey work, which could include, for example, a couple of 2 meter X 2 meter test pits or collection of artifacts scattered on the surface or something along those lines. My tutor returns to England Saturday, but the others will stay on until Sunday, so I may get one more day of work of them. After that’s done, it’s just a matter of analyzing what we find. If we come across some convincing piece of evidence, I’ll more than likely take over further work as my PhD project, and that may mean several more visits back to the States in the future. We’ll just have to see.
Unfortunately, I have no assurance that we’ll have regular internet access where we’re staying this week. If I can manage it, I will certainly try to send out regular updates of the project. If not, then I’ll be home in Charleston, South Carolina the following week, and will have to work my way through a bunch of uploads after-the-fact. One warning: for reasons that may be apparent, I will have to be a little bit guarded about specific details about this project. For instance, I will probably not generally publish information that specifies exactly where we’re working or the details of individual artifacts. This is mostly to protect the landowners and the sites. That being said, I’ll do my best to give y’all as much detail as I am reasonably able.
So the adventure begins tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll be back online soon and will have lots to tell y’all!