Archaeology
Recent findings shed light on the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke
Ongoing excavations by archaeologists from The First Colony Foundation have revealed new findings on the historical narrative of the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke.
The Roanoke Colony refers to two colonisation attempts in North America by Sir Walter Raleigh during the 16th century.
Raleigh’s aim was to stake England’s claim to the largely unknown (to Europeans) landmass of North America, and from which he could launch raids on the Spanish West Indies and annual treasure fleets.
The first attempt was made in 1585 on Roanoke Island, located in present-day Dare County, North Carolina.
According to accounts by the returning expedition leaders, the colonists had established friendly relations with the indigenous people (the Secotan), describing the land as “pleasant and bountiful.”
In reality, the colony was troubled by a lack of supplies and poor relations with the Native Americans, resulting in the colony being abandoned in 1586.
A second attempt was made in 1587 in the area of Chesapeake Bay, however, upon returning to the colony in 1590, it was found fortified with a palisade and that the settlers had vanished without a trace.
The search for what happened to the English settlers has recently focused on the Elizabethan Gardens in the town of Manteo, where archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a farmstead belonging to the “Algonquian village of Roanoke” (also spelled Roanoac), an Indigenous community that hosted the settlers in 1584.
Excavations in March 2024 have uncovered shards of Algonquian pottery dating back to the 1500s, along with a ring of copper wire (made of drawn copper) likely worn by an Algonquian warrior.
Archaeologists speculate that the ring was brought to North America by the English settlers and traded with the indigenous people who believed that copper had spiritual significance.
“Finding domestic pottery—the type used for cooking—in close proximity to an apparent piece of Native American jewellery strongly confirms we are digging in the midst of a settlement,” said Dr. Eric Klingelhofer, the First Colony Foundation’s Vice President of Research. “And Roanoac is the only known village at that site. The copper ring indicates contact with the English,” added Klingelhofer.
Previous excavations suggest that the village had a palisade with around nine internal houses for the elite warrior class. Those of a lower status or working class lived outside the palisade on farmsteads where they worked the land raising crops.
“The new findings confirm a theory that matches what we know of the village,” added Klingelhofer. “It was described as a palisaded village because the explorers came here and recorded it. And these findings add to our story.”
Another exploration is scheduled for the summer of 2024 at nearby Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. The goal is to find evidence of the colonists’ original settlement.
Header Image Credit : John Parker Davis – Public Domain
Sources : The First Colony Foundation
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been excavating a burial ground associated with the Finnic Muromians.
The Finnic Muromians were groups of settlers that lived within the vicinity of the Volga and Oka rivers. They spoke Muromian, an Uralic language that became extinct following their assimilation by the Slavs.
The burial ground, which dates from the early 10th century AD, was discovered on the eastern bank of the Oka river, located in the Nizhny Novgorod Region of Russia.
A total of seventeen burial pits have been identified, nine of which have been severely damaged through looting.
The surviving 8 burials contain the remains of four children, two women, and two men.
The men were accompanied with an ornate collection of grave goods, including arrowheads, knives, bronze bracelets, iron plates, a bronze buckle, and a whetstone.
At the bottom of one of the pits is a heavily corroded axe, along with a flint that has traces of iron-coated embossed leather and textile threads.
The burials containing women were also accompanied with high status funerary goods, such as a necklace of red-brown prismatic and dark blue berry-shaped beads of Byzantine origin, signet ring-shaped pendants, plate bracelets, a bronze spiral, and a silver ring.
Traces of wood within the pit fillings suggest that they originally contained a wooden structure, similar to a log house made of thin beams and covered with birch bark.
According to the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “The culmination of the discoveries at the site were two clay vessels, testifying to direct and close contacts between the right-bank Muromians and the Old Russian population.”
Header Image Credit : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Sources : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt are currently excavating the site of a former gallows in Quedlinburg, Germany.
Gallows are usually wooden structures made of two vertical posts, a horizontal crossbeam, and a hanging noose. They have been used for executing criminals by hanging, a prevalent form of capital punishment in Europe since the Middle Ages.
Archaeologists are currently excavating a gallows site on Galgenberg, or ‘Gallows Hill,’ which was used for public executions by the courts in Quedlinburg from 1662 to 1809.
Excavations have revealed complete and partial burials in the area, along with bone pits containing multiple bundled burials, likely the result of mass executions carried out in a short period.
Image Credit : LDA
According to the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt, “these discoveries provide unique insights into penal practices from the Middle Ages and early modern times.”
A burial unrelated to the gallows has also been unearthed, featuring a wooden coffin containing the skeletal remains of an individual buried with a rosary chain.
Archaeologists propose that the burial’s characteristics suggest that the individual was likely a suicide victim, denied burial in consecrated ground so was placed in the cemetery near the gallows.
Also discovered is a so-called ‘revenant grave’, where the skeletal remains of a man was found placed on his back with several large stones placed across his chest.
According to the researchers, the stones were likely placed to prevent the individual from rising as a revenant, which are described as animated corpses in the verbal traditions and lore of many European ethnic groups.
In medieval times, those inflicted with the revenant condition were generally suicide victims, witches, corpses possessed by a malevolent spirit, or the victim of a vampiric attack.
Header Image Credit : LDA
Sources : State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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