Possible Algonquian Capital Identified in North Carolina

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA—According to an IFL Science report, researchers led by Eric Klingelhofer of the First Colony Foundation have uncovered evidence for a palisade and nine houses at the possible site of an Algonquian village within Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. Explorers Phillip Amadas and Arthur Barlow wrote of their visit to an Algonquian village in 1584, and described it as having “nine houses, built of cedar, and fortified round with sharp trees.” The possible village site was identified last year through Algonquian pottery dated to the sixteenth century, and a ring of copper wire thought to have been made in England that could indicate contact with the English, Klingelhofer explained. The researchers suggest that elite members of the Algonquian community lived within the palisaded walls, and ruled a territory that included present-day Dare County, Roanoke Island, and parts of mainland North Carolina. The rest of the Algonquian population lived outside the walls and raised crops, he concluded. Some scholars think the English colonists who went missing from their settlement at Roanoke may have integrated into this Algonquian community. To read about excavations of a Confederare prison in North Carolina, go to "Cotton Mill, Prison, Main Street."