108 Men Came to Roanoke Island in 1585
The Roanoke Voyages ended dismally with the entire colony disappearing, never seen again after 1587.
But a lesser-known yearlong expedition to Roanoke Island in 1585 may have provided valuable lessons for the colonists who came to Jamestown 22 years later, three researchers said recently in a paper presented at the annual conference of the Society of Historical Archaeology in Williamsburg, Va.
"They don't really learn a lot from the Lost Colony, except to be careful," Phil Evans, president of the First Colony Foundation, said in a telephone interview. "Hope you get lucky - and be better prepared."
But the 108 men who came to Roanoke Island in 1585 learned that American Indians in the area cherished copper, Evans wrote along with Nick Luccketti, principal archaeologist for the James River Institute for Archaeology in Williamsburg, and Eric Klingelhofer, archaeology professor at Mercer University in Georgia.
Thomas Harriot, a scientist on the 1585 voyage who documented the yearlong expedition, recommended that subsequent English voyagers bring copper sheets cut into squares and rounds rather than English copper objects, Evans said.
When settlers arrived in 1607 along the Virginia coast to establish what would become Jamestown, the American Indian chief Powhatan had just lost his copper supplier, and he was more tolerant of the English with their boatloads of copper than he may have been otherwise, Evans said.
Archaeologists have discovered sheets of copper during digs at Jamestown, the paper said.
Illustrator John White, who was later governor of the Lost Colony, was also among the crew on the 1585 expedition. He is credited with painting numerous maps, illustrations of the coast, its flora and fauna and the Indians and their habitats.
The maps, made with Harriot's help, gave the Jamestown settlers an accurate view of the New World and are still respected today for their precision, Luccketti said in a phone interview.
"It's remarkable," he said.
Documents from the Roanoke Voyages documents were gathered into a series of three books written between 1598 and 1600 by Richard Hakluyt. Hakluyt was later a member of Jamestown's Virginia Company.
But a lesser-known yearlong expedition to Roanoke Island in 1585 may have provided valuable lessons for the colonists who came to Jamestown 22 years later, three researchers said recently in a paper presented at the annual conference of the Society of Historical Archaeology in Williamsburg, Va.
"They don't really learn a lot from the Lost Colony, except to be careful," Phil Evans, president of the First Colony Foundation, said in a telephone interview. "Hope you get lucky - and be better prepared."
But the 108 men who came to Roanoke Island in 1585 learned that American Indians in the area cherished copper, Evans wrote along with Nick Luccketti, principal archaeologist for the James River Institute for Archaeology in Williamsburg, and Eric Klingelhofer, archaeology professor at Mercer University in Georgia.
Thomas Harriot, a scientist on the 1585 voyage who documented the yearlong expedition, recommended that subsequent English voyagers bring copper sheets cut into squares and rounds rather than English copper objects, Evans said.
When settlers arrived in 1607 along the Virginia coast to establish what would become Jamestown, the American Indian chief Powhatan had just lost his copper supplier, and he was more tolerant of the English with their boatloads of copper than he may have been otherwise, Evans said.
Archaeologists have discovered sheets of copper during digs at Jamestown, the paper said.
Illustrator John White, who was later governor of the Lost Colony, was also among the crew on the 1585 expedition. He is credited with painting numerous maps, illustrations of the coast, its flora and fauna and the Indians and their habitats.
The maps, made with Harriot's help, gave the Jamestown settlers an accurate view of the New World and are still respected today for their precision, Luccketti said in a phone interview.
"It's remarkable," he said.
Documents from the Roanoke Voyages documents were gathered into a series of three books written between 1598 and 1600 by Richard Hakluyt. Hakluyt was later a member of Jamestown's Virginia Company.
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