Abandoned 1880 steam engine probably used in conjunction with the logging industry on the Roanoke River (Photo: Adam Friedman, 2007)

Remains of Fleming's Fishery,opposite the town of Jamesville on the Roanoke River (Photo: Adam Friedman, 2007).

Introduction
At the time of European settlement of the Roanoke region, the Roanoke River served as a natural route for trade and settlement. Despite being known by the Tuscaroras as Moratoc, or “river of death”, the Roanoke was a facilitator of economic activity and expansion. Accordingly, human activity has created a historical and archaeological record tied to the river. Investigation of the river though remote-sensing of surviving cultural resources and historical examination of industrial and transshipment activity may yield the information required to reconstruct the cultural landscape of the Roanoke through time.

Within the work Shipwreck Anthropology (Gould 1983), Lenihan and Murphy assert the need for maritime archaeologists to develop explicit research designs, investigate sites in an interdisciplinary manner, and “initiate research formulated to answer broad questions of human behavior” (Murphy 1983:89). In addition, Murphy writes that archaeologists should utilize anthropology by perceiving shipwrecks as databases (Murphy 1983:89).

At its core, the study will move beyond treating individual shipwrecks as discrete sites by compiling all cultural residues discovered along the Roanoke and in the historical record into a geographical information system (GIS); a geodatabase. Novel research conducted through this thesis will deepen the Roanoke River geodatabase (RRD) and historical archive of lost Roanoke River vessels, both constructed by Richards and Price in the creation of Price’s thesis, Conflict and Commerce: Maritime Archaeological Site Distribution as Cultural Change on the Roanoke River, North Carolina (2006). The information in the database, however, is constrained to the region of the Roanoke River, a reflection of their use in the investigation of wartime and peacetime shipwreck distribution dichotomies. In contrast, the themes of this study are not regionally constrained and will require examination of the landscape at large.

Enlargement of the RRD should ensure its suitability in investigating the themes of this study. In this respect, the capabilities required of these databases are a reflection of the design of the thesis. The themes of risk, legality, and social manipulation are primary, and the geographical boundaries imposed by the Roanoke region are secondary, serving only as a location on which to base the study, a hallmark of recent trends within explicit “thematic” and comparative studies within maritime archaeology (Richards
2006).

All aspects of the theme will involve the cultural landscape, necessitating a definition of how geography, history, and archaeology will interact within this study. The work of Sauer forms the origin of this definition. He asserts that the cultural landscape is a merging of anthropology and geography by which “the works of man express themselves” (Sauer 1963:333). Hoskins’ study of the English landscape, though predominantly geographic, is an example of an early cultural landscape study (Hoskins 1955).

The study will attempt to discern the role of legality, in tandem with resource location and geographic convenience, in patterning maritime commercial activities. To understand the synergies of legality, the thesis will thematically investigate the effects of
transportation, infrastructure, transportation technology, political forces, industrial legality, resource location, and geographical convenience on the cultural landscape. Investigating these themes will involve analyzing changes in the cultural landscape of the
Roanoke River region over time while asking several secondary questions:

• How did emergent transportation technologies and different transportation forms affect maritime economic activity and traffic?
• How have political forces influenced the locations and patterning of industries, population centers, and, therefore, transportation networks?
• What can a diachronic study of the dynamic between economic activity and transportation on the Roanoke reveal about national and global economic endeavors?
• How has the location of resources combined with accessibility to the river caused certain geographic areas to be chosen for industrial exploitation? Is there a difference in the location of industrial activities of legal versus illegal endeavors?

Guidance for this study will derive from several theoretical sources, such as Anthony Giddens’ Structuration Theory (Giddens 1984), as well as Brad Duncan’s (2000) and Donna Souza’s (1998) implementation of the theory in combination with notions of risk.

Use of a GIS, will integrate all information gathered in an attempt to reach the objectives of this study. Through this software, historical maps and other historical research will be layered with remote-sensing data, itself a bilayer of georeferenced sonar
images and visual magnetometer data. Unification of the historical and archaeological records will draw primarily upon vessel enrollments, custom house statistics, regional tax structures, magnetic anomalies on the river bottom, and sonar image returns.

History
Europeans first came to the Roanoke River in the Spring of 1586, represented by Ralph Lane who sailed westerly from Fort Raleigh. During his expedition of the laternamed Albemarle Sound, Lane successfully ventured to the furthest navigable reaches of
the Roanoke; to the falls of modern day Weldon (The News and Observer 1947:1) By 1682, European settlement developed enough to justify the operation of a dedicated port, that of Port Roanoke. Documented activities at Port Roanoke in regards to transportation and accompanying commercial activities are located in the North Carolina State Archives (Treasurer and Comptroller Papers 1682). As settlement and industrial activities occurred along the Roanoke, the recursive relationship between transportation and the culture that moved along the river subtlety but constantly changed the cultural landscape of the region.

During the Colonial Period of the 18th Century, extensive trade was conducted between the Roanoke River and the Caribbean. North Carolina lumber products and naval stores were exchanged for sugar products, such as rum and molasses. An extensive
fishing industry existed as well, catching rockfish, herring, and shad (Price 2006:46-47; Russell Lee pers. comm. 2007).

By the 19th Century, additional industries exploited the resources of the Roanoke. Shipbuilding, evidence of which occurred around the time of the American Revolution, continued into the next century; documents exist of the Cornell family employing thirty
men for shipbuilding in Plymouth in 1833 (Harry Thompson, pers. comm. 2004; Cornell 1833:1; both cited in Price 2006:48). By the mid-1840s, the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad, as well as the Petersburg Railroad had railheads at Weldon. This era also saw
urban development of places along the river and the creation of packet steam lines, such as the Roanoke Steamship Company in 1826 (The News and Observer 1947:1). In addition, agriculture and milling involving cotton, wheat, tobacco, and lumber products
increased in importance even into the next century (The News and Observer 1947:1; Russell Lee, pers. comm. 2006; Harry Thompson, pers. comm. 2006).

The 20th Century witnessed a decline in shipping and commerce on the river. Vessels became less frequent, and those that remained typically carried oil, pulpwood in the 1930s to 1950s and lumber products, fertilizer components, and oils in the 1970s
(Watson 1982:44; Manning and Booker 1977a:73, both cited in Price 2006:72). During Prohibition, however, illicit distilleries are known to have operated, and on highlyorganized, industrial scales (Russell Lee pers. comm. 2006). Even the fisheries suffered when pollution from the Albemarle Paper Co. killed 20,000 fish during a single spill in the mid-1960s (Shell and Fin 1963:12, as cited in Price 2006:73).

The remaining cultural resources along the Roanoke and the historical records left by a changing society provide the possibility of detailing patterns of commercial expansion, decline, effects of transportation technological improvements, and infrastructure change. The industrial activities of the Roanoke reflect the economic environment of their time in the Roanoke region and are elements of the cultural landscape, making them utilitarian in the investigation of the themes of this study.

Theory
Many theoretical views will contribute to the structure of this study. Three sets of theory, those of Maritime Cultural Landscapes, Structuration Theory, and Central Place Theory, will permit the observation of risk, legality, and social manipulation at multiple
levels of society, from the individual to society.

Maritime Cultural Landscapes Theory is an extension of Cultural Landscapes Theory and is borne from the work of multiple theorists but is limited by the use of unnecessary jargon and an inability to decide upon definition (Price 2006:18). This collection of theory, however, proposes that behavior and landscape are connected (Westerdahl 1992; Jasińki 1993; McElrean 2002; Parker 2002; Flatman 2003). The involvement of behavior in the landscape prompts the exercise of additional theories, such as Giddens’ Structuration Theory.

Implementation of Giddens’ Structuration Theory will be the primary theoretical guide for the investigation of the themes of commercial legality and industrial geographical patterning. The central tenet of Structuration Theory states that the individual (Agent) actively understands and, through the execution of actions (Agency), can alter the rules that society imposes on Agents. The structure of society reflects these actions, which is simultaneously reinforced, transmuted, and evolving (Giddens 1984).

Duncan combines Structuration Theory with the factor of risk as defined by Fox, stating that the attempt of society to mitigate risk, a negative consequence of an action, in the seascape serves as a form of societal structure (Duncan 2000; Fox 1999). Souza, in
the same vein, explores the behavior of antiquated sailing merchant vessels competing against steamships and the risks that crews were willing to take. To preserve the economic effectiveness of their obsolete vessels and attain an advantage over
competitors, sailing crews occasionally stepped outside the risk-mitigating rules of society (Souza 1998).

Structuration Theory, combined with the concepts of risk as embodied in the work of Duncan and Souza, could help describe the synergies between the themes of legality, resource location, and geographical convenience in determining the patterning of
industrial activities along the Roanoke. Of particular interest are the actions of those Agents willfully engaging in illegal activities borne out of an intentional violation of the laws of the Agency. Comparison of the geographical tendencies of legal and illegal
activities could illustrate thematic synergies. For example, the operating locations of low-risk of legal activities, such as lumber milling, could be compared to those of highrisk illegal activities, such as moonshine distilleries, allowing, potentially, for the
development of an explanatory model or observation of patterns. Accordingly, landscape moves beyond the canvas of human activity and becomes a cognitive map illustrating human behavior.

Addressing themes concerning population centers and the effects of transportation infrastructure on central places will require the use of Walter Christaller’s Central Place Theory. Christaller states that the importance of a central place can be quantified through
investigation of the central goods that it produces for consumption in its surrounding region. The size of the region over which the place has influence is a function of the importance of the central place. In addition, Christaller asserts that the importance of the
central place and the size of the accompanying region are not static but, rather, subject to dynamic forces that can alter the place-region relationship. Of the forces described by Christaller, those of traffic and transportation are of particular interest. Elements of
Central Place Theory predict the effects of rail and automobile infrastructure on central places, the impacts on precursor forms of transportation, and the shift of importance and economic activity (Christaller 1966). This will aid in understanding the effect that
railroads and highways had on the maritime commerce along the Roanoke River as well as the fluctuations of importance among Roanoke central places.

Research Methodology
This study has two main components: archaeological investigation of cultural resources via the methods of side scan sonar, magnetometry, multibeam sonar, and visual inspection, as well as historical research primarily involving port records from customs
houses serving the Roanoke region. Much work has already been done on the remote sensing component. A recent remote-sensing survey was conducted in August 2006 and is an enlargement of previous surveys performed on the Roanoke to date. In addition, the RRD will serve as an expandable resource for use in investigating the themes of this study.

Due to the finite time and funds available for archaeological fieldwork, the remote-sensing component of this study, which has largely been completed, imposes geographical limits on this study, that of the length of the Roanoke River from the mouth
to upstream of Hamilton, NC. The thematic nature of this study and the historical research required, however, eases these geographical restrictions, allowing investigation of commerce and movement throughout the river system from the colonial period.

Archaeological Research
Prior work on the Roanoke is mostly archaeological and includes many projects by the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch at Fort Fisher (NCUAB) and others. This data will be merged with remote-sensing data obtained through ECU
projects as well as visual inspections performed by Price in 2006 and the author in 2007.

Previous Fieldwork
Investigations have been performed of Fort Branch, the Rhodes site, the Broad Creek blockade, and various vessels located along the river (Bright 1979, 1981a, 1981b; Burke 1982; Lawrence 2002a, 2002b). The NCUAB maintains an extensive archive of
vessels lost in North Carolina waters. Each vessel has a North Carolina Shipwrecks Data Entry form, which records general information about the vessel itself, if known. Aside from this form, the quantity of information per vessel is variable depending on the data garnered from historical and archaeological research. However, the archive for the Roanoke River only extends from 1831 (Price 2006:27). Despite this, the NCUAB maintains historical records on the industries, river crossings, landings, shipping,
shipbuilding, and other landscape features on multiple North Carolina rivers including the Roanoke. These records will be examined due to their likely pertinence to this thesis.

The most recent work applicable to this study is Franklin Price’s 2006 thesis. Price’s work includes a Microsoft Access relational database of vessel loss information along the Roanoke and the RRD composed of several historical maps, the geographic
locations of found vessels, geographical representations of surveyed river area, and other information.

Remote-Sensing
Remote-sensing data along the Roanoke has been collected by the NCUAB and through a 2005 ECU field school (Lawrence 1990, 2003). A comprehensive side scan sonar and magnetometer survey was conducted by ECU from the mouth of the Roanoke
to above Hamilton, NC during the month of August 2006, and was funded by a NOAA Ocean Exploration Grant awarded to Lawrence Babits, Nathan Richards, Frank Cantelas (Maritime Studies), and J.P. Walsh (Geology), and to survey the Roanoke and
Perquimans Rivers in order to discover cultural resources. This represents a considerable enlargement on previous sonar and magnetometer surveys of the Roanoke that covered the river between Plymouth and Jamesville, NC and alleviates some of the archaeological bias by extending into the middle and upper reaches of the Roanoke (Price 2006:28-29). Through the teaching of the course HIST 5005 (Selected Topics) Deep Water & Advanced Survey Methods for Maritime Archaeology during the Fall 2006 semester at ECU, additional remote-sensing will be performed along the Roanoke with sonar, magnetometer, and multi-beam sonar. The data from the August 2006 is currently in the data processing stage for insertion into GIS. Information collected during the Fall 2006 semester will be similarly processed and inserted into GIS. Visual inspection of the river and river banks occurred during the August 2006 survey, allowing the cataloguing of cultural resources either on land or at the water-land interface, and will be a method used during future surveys.

Historical Research
Preliminary research has yielded several potential sources in multiple libraries and archives. The information contained in these collections should allow the study to observe the extents of the Roanoke River system in relation to the themes under investigation.

Manuscripts
Research has identified sources in Special Collections of Joyner Library, the North Carolina State Archives, and the National Archives that will be of value to this study. Located in Special Collections at Joyner Library, the Francis M. Manning Collection (1740-1985), William Blount Rodman Papers (1783-1976), and Timothy Hunter Papers (1806-1906) are promising sources of information on the construction and operation of railroads and steamships in the Roanoke region, governmental activities
within Plymouth, NC, and the construction of vessels within the region.

Port records will be chief in answering questions regarding the effects of transportation on the cultural landscape of the Roanoke River. The records of Port Roanoke and Port Edenton, which will give information on bills of lading, import and export figures, custom duties collected, destinations and origins, and other data, should allow analysis of the flow of goods, vessels, and trade along the Roanoke. Records for Port Roanoke and Port Edenton are located in the Treasurer and Comptroller Papers of the North Carolina State Archives and cover a period from 1682 to 1794 for Port Roanoke and 1792-1807 for Port Edenton. After these dates, federal records of these ports are located in the National Archives, record group 36, Records of the United States
Customs Service, 1745-1997.

The use of port records should avoid limitations imposed by the historical record. Price states that archival collections of use to his study lacked information regarding vessels absent from the registration and enrollment records, especially during the years between the late 1800s and early 1900s (Price 2006:40). The combined records of Port Roanoke and Port Edenton in the North Carolina State Archives and the National Archives, extending from 1682 to the present, should fill these historical gaps. Any historical limitations possibly imposed by a lack of chronological data pertaining to vessel build and loss will be overcome with port records. Without supplanting the discovery and examination of archaeological sites as a primary information source, they will instead downgrade the need to find vessel build and loss chronological data. These records will allow analysis of domestic and international commercial patterns of the Roanoke primarily through the visitation of merchant vessels still in operation, not only those that were scuttled or lost.

Cartographic Sources
East Carolina University’s J. Y. Joyner Library maintains multiple North Carolina cartographic collections. The collections are divided into three series, Original North Carolina Maps, Stout Historical Research Maps of North Carolina Counties, 1978, and
Historical Map Reprints, 1585-1896. The Original and Stout series are organized by county, and the Reprints series is organized chronologically. These maps contain information of natural resources, natural and artificial landforms, and various elements of
the state’s cultural landscape. Topographic maps from the United States Geological Survey as well as nautical charts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, all available in J. Y. Joyner Library, would aid in placing historical and
archaeological information into a three-dimensional geographic context.

Oral Histories
Individuals with personal historical knowledge of the Roanoke River have been found and may provide substantial information related to this thesis. Mr. Russell Lee, retiree and life-long resident along the river, has already identified several cultural sites
of potential archaeological interest. Mr. Harry Thompson, curator of the Port O’ Plymouth Museum, maintains extensive expertise in all aspects of Roanoke River history and has family origins in the lumber trade along the river.

Analysis and Interpretation
The ultimate goal of this study is to deposit all archaeological and historical data into a GIS, layered in ways that will illustrate cultural patterns of commerce and transportation in the landscape. Rather than create a new Access or GIS database, the
RRD will be deepened with additional historical research and remote-sensing data. Prior to the addition of remote-sensing data collected during the August 2006 Roanoke River survey, both magnetometer and sonar data will require processing. Sonar
image data will be processed with SonarWebPro, which takes the sonar tiles collected by Sea Scan PC software and georeferences them in relation to GPS locational data recorded at the time of sonar surveying. Within SonarWebPro, low resolution and high resolution sonar mosaic maps will be created. Once imported into a GIS, the low resolution map will serve to identify the area of the river surveyed and the high resolution map will be useful in analysis of potential sonar targets.

Magnetometer data will be processed through the data collection program HYPACK MAX 4.3Gold. Within this program, the raw data will be edited, made into TIN models (triangulated irregular network), and exported as GEOTIFF files, or georeferenced TIFF files for insertion into GIS. As a layer in GIS, the graphical magnetometer data will be interactive with sonar data, lending the ability to observe correlations between magnetometer targets and sonar targets. Historical data from port records and other sources will be entered into a relational Microsoft Access database already in existence from Price’s 2006 thesis. Combination of remote-sensing data and historical data into the GIS database will enable the analysis, interpretation, and graphical representation of patterns in transportation, commerce, and cultural change within the Roanoke region.

References Cited
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Newspapers and Magazines

The News and Observer
1947 Roanoke, ‘River of Death’, Due New Helpful Role under Control. The News and Observer, 28 September. Raleigh, NC.

Shell and Fin
1963 No title. Shell and Fin 1(2).