A small copper earring unearthed during archaeological digs in search of the Native American village linked to the famed Lost Colony was “almost certainly” traded or gifted to the local tribe by Sir Walter Raleigh’s explorers, based on newly-released scientific tests.
Volunteer researchers found the ring and some shards of pottery last summer in archaeological pits at the Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island near modern-day Manteo, North Carolina. The First Colony Foundation — a nonprofit dedicated to conducting archaeological and historical research on Roanoke Island — has been searching for the Algonquian village encountered during Sir Walter Raleigh’s first expedition to the New World 440 years ago.
“This is an amazing find with an intriguing story to tell,” said Eric Klingelhofer, the foundation’s vice president for research, who led the Elizabethan Gardens dig. “After lying hidden in the ground for more than four centuries, this piece of copper now confirms that we have indeed located the site of Roanoac, the Algonquian village that welcomed the first English explorers in 1584.”
An analysis conducted by Madison Accelerator Laboratory at James Madison University in Harrisonburg found that copper used to make the ring was of European origin, rather than from a North American source, the foundation said in a news release.
The Spanish and French, Klingelhofer said, were never close enough to Roanoke Island during 16th century expeditions to have left the ring at the village.
During the tribe’s first contact with English explorers Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe in 1584, the wife of the village chief treated the men to a woodland feast.
“We were entertained with all love and kindness,” Barlowe wrote in his journal, “and with as much bounty, after their manner, as they could possibly devise.”
Klingelhofer said there’s no way to be sure, but it’s possible the explorers repaid the village’s hospitality with a gift of the copper earring.
The explorer’s first successful encounter with the Roanoac paved the way for another voyage from England in 1587, when 117 settlers arrived on Roanoke Island and established a colony. But when British ships returned with supplies three years later, the settlement had vanished — and the Lost Colony became one of history’s most enduring mysteries.
Roanoac village was abandoned in 1586, so the earring must have been presented as a gift or exchanged in trade before then, the foundation release said.
“Either during the 1584 visit by Amadas and Barlowe or the 1585 military outpost under Ralph Lane, rather than during Sir Walter Raleigh’s final effort, the 1587 civilian settlement led by artist John White,” the foundation wrote.
For the native tribe, copper was rare and to be cherished.
“They treasured it. It was actually spiritual,” Klingelhofer said in an interview after the ring’s discovery last year.
