planning to abandon. 



Recently, Phelps has been ex- 

 cavating the village of Chowanoke on 

 the west bank of the Chowan River in 

 Hertford County. In March 1586, 

 Ralph Lane visited Chowanoke 

 probably the most powerful of the 

 Carolina Algonkian villages. 



This spring, Phelps and his crew 

 tested what he believes is the public 

 area of the village where the political 

 and religious buildings would have 

 been. Early findings indicate that 

 much of the evidence is still intact. 



The town, which extends for about a 

 mile along the river, was occupied from 

 about 825 to 1644, says Phelps. At 

 least 30 houses, some as wide as 40 feet 

 and as long as 150 feet, housed clans or 

 extended families. On that basis, 

 Phelps estimated that 7,000 to 10,000 

 Indians lived along the Chowan River 

 in the 1500s. 



The population of the Chowanoke 

 society was probably higher than other 

 Algonkian societies, says Phelps. The 

 fertile farmland along the Chowan 

 supported greater numbers than the 

 sandy soils of Roanoke Island and the 

 Dare mainland, he explains. 



Phelps doesn't have to dig far to find 

 clues of life 400 years ago. Most of the 

 evidence is directly under the "plow 

 zone," he says. In addition to the post 

 patterns of houses, the excavations 

 have uncovered the remains of cooking 

 pots, drinking vessels, weapons, bone 

 tools and ornaments, axes, stone 

 knives and shell beads. 



Those Algonkian relics are all that's 

 left now. The first English attempt at 

 a colony may have failed, but English 

 America eventually flourished. The In- 

 dians were't so lucky. 



— By Nancy Davis 



Theodor de Bry engraving of a John White drawing 



F 



ft 



* ''4- 2$ 



16th century Algonkian Indian village 



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