found indications of houses where the 

 colonists may have lived. Researchers 

 with the National Park Service con- 

 tinue to search for clues today. 



The 400th Anniversary Committee 

 also is sponsoring research on the Lost 

 Colony. David Phelps, an 

 archaeologist at East Carolina Uni- 

 versity, is searching for the Indian 

 villages. And Gordon Watts, co- 

 director of the maritime history and 

 underwater archaeology program at 

 ECU, will conduct a series of un- 

 derwater tests in the late summer or 

 fall of this year. 



Watts believes that because there 

 has been a considerable amount of ero- 



Theodor de Bry engraving of a John White drawing 



Roanoke chieftain 



sion and a 4-foot rise in the tide during 

 the past 400 years, that the former set- 

 tlement may be located in the sound. 

 One-third of a mile off the north end of 

 the island, Watts and his crew will 

 scan the bottom of the sound with 

 sonar and attempt to detect metals, 

 brick footings and the like with a 

 proton-precession magnetometer. If 

 sufficient data is found, actual diving 

 and more testing will take place next 

 year. 



Like Watts, many hope that one day 

 the pieces of this giant puzzle will be 

 found. But others, intrigued by the 

 mystery, don't want it to end. 



— By Sarah Friday 



Beneath tilled Carolina farmland 

 rest the secrets of an Indian 

 civilization here long before the British 

 were even aware of the New World. 

 Today, much of that civilization is as 

 lost as the Roanoke colony of 1587. 



But with the help of modern 

 archaeology, we may find some clues. 

 As part of the 400th Anniversary 

 Celebration, archaeologist David 

 Phelps is sifting the soils of coastal 

 Carolina in search of some of the In- 

 dian villages the English visited 400 

 years ago. His work is sponsored by 

 the American Quadricentennial Cor- 

 poration with funds from the Z. Smith 

 Reynolds Foundation. 



Much of what we know of the In- 

 dians comes from colonists' accounts 

 and from John White's drawings. 

 Phelps has uncovered additional infor- 

 mation, piece by piece. 



The people of the northern 

 tidewater zone of North Carolina 

 in the 16th century are known collec- 

 tively as the Carolina Algonkians, says 

 Phelps. They were divided into about 

 16 societies or separate sociopolitical 

 units, each governed by a king. 



While popular myth portrays In- 

 dians as savages on the verge of starva- 

 tion, the Algonkians were a well- 

 developed agricultural society. In fact, 



Photo from UNC News Bureau 



William Powell 



says Phelps, the colonists might have 

 starved if it hadn't been for the In- 

 dians' farming expertise. They do- 

 nated food to the hungry Englishmen 

 and taught them how and what to 

 plant. 



"English agricultural practices 

 didn't lend themselves to the North 

 Carolina climate. It would have taken 

 a long period of adjustment and trial- 

 and-error had they not had the 

 knowledge and experience from the 

 Carolina Algonkians," says Phelps. 



These days, North Carolina far- 

 mers are not only plowing the 

 same fields the Indians used years ago; 

 they're growing the same crops. The 

 English colonists reported the Indians 

 grew corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, 

 gourds, tobacco and sunflower. 



The Indians' agricultural system 

 operated on the slash-and-burn 

 method, says Phelps. When the soil of 

 one field was exhausted, they'd move 

 to another, clearing the land by 

 cutting and burning. The Indians 

 probably used a field two to four years 

 before they abandoned it. 



When the English arrived, the In- 

 dians gave them farmland. But Phelps 

 has a theory that the Indians were 

 donating land that they were already 



Continued on next page 



Sifting native soils 



