FERRYLAND, CANADA—CBC reports that an exceptionally rare set of Native American wampum beads were discovered during excavations at the seventeenth-century Colony of Avalon in Ferryland, Newfoundland, one of the earliest and best preserved English colonial sites in North America. The settlement was established in 1621 by Sir George Calvert, later known as Lord Baltimore, as a refuge for Catholics facing persecution in England. Almost 2 million artifacts have been recovered at the site since archaeological work began over three decades ago, but the seven small shell beads found during a recent investigation are the first of their kind ever to have been unearthed in the colony or anywhere else in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. White and purple wampum beads, which were fashioned from quahog and whelk shells, were an integral part of Native American culture. They were worn as decoration, used to record important events, and exchanged as a form of currency between European and Native American traders, which is how they likely how ended up so far away in the distant North Atlantic colony. For more on the site, go to "Off the Grid: Ferryland, Newfoundland, Canada."
