Badger Bart
Sr. Member
- Mar 24, 2005
- 301
- 18
UNDISCOVERED TREASURE, & THEY'RE LOOKING FOR HELP
Published: Oct 19, 2005
Modified: Oct 19, 2005 12:40 AM
Archaeologists finish Dig, Don't Find Lost Colony
By MJWNCRALRAL5589, The Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Archaeologists finished their underwater dig last week without finding out what happened to the Lost Colony, which was this country's first permanent English colony.
"We didn't find anything we were looking for," said Gordon Watts, a board member of the First Colony Foundation, a group of historians hoping to locate the site of the Lost Colony at Roanoke Island.
But the result didn't surprise Watts, an underwater archaeologist from Washington, N.C..
"There was no serious evidence we'd find something that's been lost 400 years in the first two weeks," he said.
The settlement of 116 people, occupied in 1587, disappeared three years later, leaving behind only the word "Croatoan" carved into a tree. No one is certain where their site was but because Roanoke Island has eroded in the past 400 years, some believe the site may be under water.
The group of scuba divers, led by Watts, worked in shallow water on the north side of the island but stopped work Friday after 10 days. Watts recovered just half a dozen artifacts of which the most promising were pieces of brick probably dating to pre-Civil War days, but difficult to trace to the 1500s.
"They're very inconclusive," Watts said.
Watts plans to return this winter and in fall 2006 to Shallowbag Bay, near downtown Manteo and farther south on Roanoke Island. The foundation also is trying to raise $30,000 to fund a two-week terrestial dig on Roanoke Island, Watts said.---
Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com
Published: Oct 19, 2005
Modified: Oct 19, 2005 12:40 AM
Archaeologists finish Dig, Don't Find Lost Colony
By MJWNCRALRAL5589, The Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Archaeologists finished their underwater dig last week without finding out what happened to the Lost Colony, which was this country's first permanent English colony.
"We didn't find anything we were looking for," said Gordon Watts, a board member of the First Colony Foundation, a group of historians hoping to locate the site of the Lost Colony at Roanoke Island.
But the result didn't surprise Watts, an underwater archaeologist from Washington, N.C..
"There was no serious evidence we'd find something that's been lost 400 years in the first two weeks," he said.
The settlement of 116 people, occupied in 1587, disappeared three years later, leaving behind only the word "Croatoan" carved into a tree. No one is certain where their site was but because Roanoke Island has eroded in the past 400 years, some believe the site may be under water.
The group of scuba divers, led by Watts, worked in shallow water on the north side of the island but stopped work Friday after 10 days. Watts recovered just half a dozen artifacts of which the most promising were pieces of brick probably dating to pre-Civil War days, but difficult to trace to the 1500s.
"They're very inconclusive," Watts said.
Watts plans to return this winter and in fall 2006 to Shallowbag Bay, near downtown Manteo and farther south on Roanoke Island. The foundation also is trying to raise $30,000 to fund a two-week terrestial dig on Roanoke Island, Watts said.---
Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com
