Archaeologists found evidence of the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island in North Carolina when two pieces of pottery were recently unearthed there.
“It was an exciting find,” Eric Deetz, an archaeologist with the First Colony Foundation,
told The Virginian-Pilot. “That pottery had something to do with the Elizabethan presence on that island.”
The quarter-sized fragments, which Deetz called the most significant find since the 1940s, could have been part of a medicine maker's jar from the Roanoke voyages. They were found two feet underground about 75 yards away from an earthen mound believed to be a fort from the period.
The Lost Colony disappeared in the late 1500s after English explorer Walter Raleigh sent three groups to the coast of North Carolina. The colony's governor, Walter White, returned to England for supplies in 1587, and when he returned in 1590, the colony had vanished,
History.com explained.
The tin-glaze material of the fragments was common between 1570s and 1620s,
Science Recorder noted. The fragments are large enough that researchers are able to identify the shape and size of the jar they came from.
Members of the colony may have used the jar to mix salves and medicines, archeologists said.
“It’s very small and very fragile,” Deetz
told The Huffington Post. “A single piece is as good as a whole pot.”
The discovery was made by archaeologists from the Southeast Archaeology Center while conducting excavations in areas that have been threatened by erosion,
WTKR-TV reported.
The pieces have been sent for tests and documentation, after which they will likely be on display at the park's welcome center.
Twitter users applauded the discovery.
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