ROANOKE ISLAND, N.C. — A lot has been said about the Lost Colony of English settlers believed to have disappeared from North Carolina’s Outer Banks more than 400 years ago, but even less is known about some of the Native Americans who may have greeted them.
Researchers on Roanoke Island are trying to solve that mystery too. They’ve spent the week looking for clues of a lost Algonquin Village called Roanoac, tucked along the shore of the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo.
“They didn’t know it was here, but we’ve been able to prove beyond any doubt that we have remnants here of the Roanoac village,” said Dr. Eric Klingelhofer, vice-president of research for the First Colony Foundation.
This week, the volunteers and researchers discovered a piece of pottery believed to be from the village. It builds on prior discoveries on the site in past years, including last summer.
Klingelhofer said it’s believed the native population had disappeared from the site by 1590.
“If you want to look at origins, you have to go,” Klingelhofer said. “And if you can’t find them, you have to keep looking for them. And that’s what we’re doing.”
The work involved digging through layers of dirt and then sifting through that dirt to see what can be discovered.
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“It is something different about as opposed to a replica,” said Tama Creef, who helped with the work. “It’s amazing to think what’s in here.”
The hope is the discoveries made help provide more insights about the people who saw the first English colonists more than 400 years ago.
There’s some talk of the gardens," Klingerlhofer said. Finding this an opportunity to not just to have Elizabethan Gardens, but Algonquin Gardens as well. And I think it would be a great learning opportunity for the children and other visitors to come and see how the other part of ‘first contact’ actually lived."
Researchers plan to conduct another dig at the Ft. Raleigh National Historic Site later this year.
