Searching for Roanokes lost colony

[LadyDigger]

Re: Searching for Roanoke's lost colony

Will do....hope they let me take pics....I think once I tell them my hubby's artifacts are on display also, they might let me....hehehehe

But I will post pics, if I am able...(I can always turn off the flash too!)

 

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[kenb]

Re: Searching for Roanoke's lost colony

Still searching, Ann did you ever get to that exibit?


Top Stories

3D radar-computer 'digs' for Lost Colony
BY ED BECKLEY | SENTINEL CORRESPONDENT


When doctors want to see a body's organs they use an magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI) to view beautifully clear images of what's inside.

When archaeologists want to see what's below the surface of the earth they are now beginning to use a similar technology called computer-assisted radar tomography (CART).

An archaeologist with the First Colony Foundation was on site at Fort Raleigh Saturday with CART engineers testing the advanced ground penetrating system. Their hope is that CART will prove to be a viable tool to help find artifacts from Sir Walter Raleigh's 16th Century colonies in the future.

The First Colony Foundation comprises a team of top archaeologists who in recent years discovered the expanded Jamestown, Va. settlement. The group also is a partner with the National Park Service in search of the Elizabethan presence on Roanoke Island. It has dug its share of holes along Roanoke Sound the past couple of years.

"The search continues," said Park Ranger Rob Bolling, as the CART rolled along the park's eastern parking lot near The Lost Colony production box office. Only this time, nobody's hands were getting dirty.

"It looks like a lawn mower," said the Foundation's vice president of research and archaeologist Eric Klingelhofer, who set up the project.

In fact, it partially is. The system uses a fixed array of radar transmitters and receivers which lay atop a rolling cart. The cart is only about a foot off the ground. A modified commercial lawnmower pushes the device while its radar transmitters fire into the ground. Its receivers then pick up signals reflected back by subsurface objects. The data displays and is stored in a computer located near the lawnmower's driver seat.


On this day, Radar Tomography Field Engineer Mike Meide of Jacksonville, FL, was operating the CART vehicle and collecting data from unseen objects under the parking lot blacktop. Co-worker John Krause of Tallahassee stood nearby operating a laser-tracking machine that resembled a surveyor's tripod. Both men work for Witten Technologies, Inc., developers of the CART system. Krause's laser-tracker robotically followed and marked the location of the CART every six feet. This would allow Witten's proprietary software to create a map showing what the CART found, and where. The software would not only accurately pinpoint where the reflections took place, it would convert the signals into three-dimensional pictures of what the underground objects look like. It would present the images clearly and in almost perfectly accurate size and shape, the men said.

Meide seemed confident that the sandy soil would prove satisfactory for the test. "The worst soil is clay, which absorbs radar energy. Sand lets the energy pass through it," he said. During the interview, Meide said, "There's something down there." It was evident from radar waves on his computer screen that something deeper than five feet was reflecting upward. Klingelhofer didn't get excited. He already knew there were park utilities underground, and the site also had been a farm for many years. Union Civil War soldiers had an encampment there, as well.

Klingelhofer's teams had dug trenches adjacent to this area in past years. However, this would be the first time archaeologists would get a look at what was lurking under the hard surface of the huge parking lot nearby. "There's nothing instant about this," he said.

Even though Meide said there might be something to look at next week, the archaeologist reserved judgment.

Moments later it began to rain, which would have postponed another test on the dirt trail just north and east. Bolling said a ground radar scan in the 1980s had picked up at least one rectangular-shaped anomaly in the woods, consistent with a grave. He said that many people died during a 1918 influenza epidemic, and park officials never found the graves in the area they thought they would be. He couldn't speculate what CART might find there.

Klingelhofer said the CART has "great potential," and he was "very enthusiastic about it, but we have to run these tests. If this turns out to be an appropriate tool, then we would raise money for its use here." Those wishing to make a tax-deductible donation to the First Colony Foundation can send checks to 1501 Cole Mill Rd., Durham, NC, 27705.

Bolling said the park service is making every effort to locate the sites of the Raleigh colonies in the park, and any results discovered by CART would provide valuable information — even if the wished-for colonial remnants do not materialize. Relatedly, Klingelhofer said the First Colony Foundation also has plans to continue its search, on the south end of Roanoke Island, as part of its ongoing plan here.

kenb

 

[LadyDigger]

Re: Searching for Roanoke's lost colony

Kenb....No, we have not been down there. Hubby has emailed Dr. Ewen to find out if he did, infact, send the artifacts to the museum...but has not heard a word back yet. And we have been so busy with scouts, work and other things, it slipped our minds. I'll ask hubby to give Dr. Ewen a call. He was suppose to let hubby know the artifacts were there, but we never received word.

I heard about this CART process. Infact, the last symposium we went to...several years ago, as a matter of fact, Fred Willard was talking about getting shots taken from overhead...like from a plane or satellite...I can't remember what it's called, but similar to CART. It would give indication of anything in the ground. But that process was VERY EXPENSIVE to use. It was kinda' like radar penetration into the ground, something like CART does. But we never heard anything else about it...guess they couldn't raise the money for it and it was to research Ft Raleigh.

I'll have to get on hubby to contact Dr Ewen and see if they are there. I would love to see his artifacts displayed...that would be so cool.

 

[kenb]

Re: Searching for Roanoke's lost colony

Thanks for the update Ann, good luck and keep me posted. Thanks.

kenb

 

[kenb]

Re: Searching for Roanoke's lost colony

For anyone in the area.

SWANNANOA -- "The First Lost Colony," an episode of "Exploring North Carolina" that recently aired statewide on UNC-TV, will be shown at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Warren Wilson College's Canon Lounge of the Gladfelter Student Center.

The program features continuing research by Warren Wilson College professor David Moore and fellow archaeologists at the Berry archaeological site near Morganton.

For more information, call 771-2012 or e-mail [email protected].


kenb

 

[kenb]

Re: Searching for Roanoke's lost colony

Another update.

Recent discoveries give new clues about early colonists
BY JESSICA BOWEN | SENTINEL STAFF




The Fort Raleigh National Historic Site has been home to several mysteries, including the fate of the Lost Colony.

And, now, recent discoveries by archaeologists from the First Colony Foundation (FCF) might provide clues to not only the exact location of the settlement, but also how the colonists and Indians lived.

A non-profit organization, FCF was formed in 2004 to conduct archaeological and historical research on the first English colonies on Roanoke Island.

Doug Stover, Fort Raleigh historian, explained that FCF's recent excavation is "one of the biggest discoveries" since the 1990's excavation, led by renowned archaeologist Ivor Noel Hume, when the remains of a scientific workshop, known as the Science Center, were discovered.

According to a press release sent by Stover, the most important findings of the May 2008 excavation were two shallow pits that contained artifacts possibly related to interaction between the Science Center and an Indian village on Roanoke Island.

In one pit, the discoveries included 14 copper plates lying edge-to-edge in the ground in a manner that Stover said suggested they had been strung together like a necklace.

"They were surrounded by oyster shells," he said, "and almost looked like somebody purposely placed them down."


The second pit held 17 white and one blue Venetian glass beads, an Indian red clay tobacco pipe, a blue glass trade bead, nails, and part of an iron knife.

Other findings uncovered during the two-week excavation were: a gray flint, lead ball, European potsherds, a Spanish Olive jar, and one crucible.

Some of the items were probably traded with the Indians, noted Stover.

Post-holes identifying a structure also were also found.

"Some seemed to disappear as they continued to dig, but two continued on and appear to be definitely post holes," Stover said. He said the site, which is the farthest away from the earthwork, might indicate a separate structure that was used "completely different from the fortification."

The discoveries all seemed to be things the colonists traded, and all seemed to be in one area, said Stover.

The items are currently being analyzed at the James River Institute for Archaeology by a combination of the Jamestown Foundation and English Colonists and Native American experts. According to Stover, once the discoveries' authenticity has been verified, they will be on display at Fort Raleigh, where Stover hopes to put the items in an exhibit.

To determine the verification and authenticity of each item, principal investigator and curator for the James River Institute for Archaeology, Nick Luccketti, said each item is sent to a laboratory, washed and treated with chemicals to cleanse and preserve, and then identified.

Each artifact is identified by what it is and when it was made. "One major component for identifying the pottery and glass beads found [at Fort Raleigh], is when they were made," Luccketti told the Sentinel.

To help identify the copper plates, the soil and organic material found with the plates have to undergo the radio-carbon dating process. All soil surrounding the copper plates will be put in a water filled tank that agitates the soil. "Material will float to the top and sink to the bottom, we can often identify plant names and find plant seeds," said Luccketti.

Another important part of identifying the artifacts is getting more information from additional archaeological work, said Luccketti. He said that he expects the verification process to be completed by the end of July.

Currently, while the verification is being completed, FCF is working on an archaeological report to be finished by July 4. The report will identify their findings and be submitted to the National park Service, said Stover.

FCF hopes to continue excavation work this fall.

252-480-2234



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kenb

 

[allen]

Re: Searching for Roanoke's lost colony

In my opinion, the indians came in to roanoke and took everyone prisoner and sooner or later murdered them...