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Roanoke Colonies Research Newsletter
1995 Virginia Company Foundation Survey at Fort Raleigh Nicholas M. Luccketti, Executive Director Virginia Company Foundation The Virginia Company Foundation (VCF) conducted an archaeological survey at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site from November 6-12, 1995. The survey focused on the thickly wooded Harriot Nature Trail area between the reconstructed earthen fort and the Elizabethan Gardens. This area was surveyed for the first time only during the 1994 VCF field season when a test pit was excavated, uncovering a cultural stratum beneath more than two feet of sand. The black sandy loam contained 22 shards of Indian pottery and numerous fragments of charcoal. The pottery was identified as belonging to the Colington series whose dates include the late sixteenth century. The question was whether this site was exclusively Native American or might it have been reused by the English? For the 1995 survey, one-foot test holes were excavated from the 1994 test pit to define the limits of the artifact-bearing layer as well as four larger test pits to recover other artifacts and to search for archaeological features. While no features were uncovered, European artifacts were found, including shards of Spanish olive jar, a crucible shard, a lead shot, delftware glaze, a fragment of an English tobacco pipe bowl, a piece of locally-made tobacco pipe stem, and a piece of flint. Numerous shards of Native American pottery also were collected. This material could date to the late sixteenth century. Given the many crucible shards found during the Ivor Noël Hume led VCF excavation of the metallurgical workshop of Joachim Gans, the crucible shard almost certainly is associated with the 1585 Ralph Lane settlement. It appears that the thick sand layers have preserved a land surface that was used by the English during the time of the Roanoke settlements.
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