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Contact: Cyndy Holda, 252-473-2111 x148
Superintendent Mike Murray announced today that several exploratory archeological excavations begin, under the terms of an archeological permit, at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and Cape Hatteras National Seashore during the months of May and June. In May, at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, Professor Gordon Watts, the Institute of Nautical Archeology, with a team of archeologists, will perform underwater archeology work for several days adjacent to the shoreline in an area known as “Barrel Beach” near The Lost Colony complex. The team is searching for evidence of the first English Settlement site to further examine the geophysical anomalies previously found in the area. In addition, at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, the First Colony Foundation will continue to excavate and explore the area of the Thomas Harriot Trail Site where several new finds in the past two years have shed light on the past inhabitants of this famed location where the first unsuccessful English attempt at colonization of the “New World” began. At Cape Hatteras National Seashore, a new park partnership with the Field School of Maritime History and Underwater Research with East Carolina University (ECU), the National Park Service Submerged Cultural Resource Unit, the UNC-Coastal Studies Institute, the NC State Underwater Archeology Unit and NOAA Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. The partnership project, Shipwrecks of the Graveyard of the Atlantic, will be comprised of a team of underwater archeologists that will dive and document the sunken wrecks of German Submarines located off the North Carolina coast and several shipwrecks that are located within 150 feet of the Pamlico Sound shoreline near the Salvo Day Use area. The team will also document shipwrecks that are reported and exposed along the beaches within Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The remains of the three-masted schooner Laura A. Barnes that wrecked off Nags Head in 1921 will be excavated. Doug Stover, NPS Cultural Resources Specialist, will oversee the excavation operations along with Primary Investigator Dr. Nathan Richard of ECU, and NOAA Education Specialist, Shannon Ricles. For more information, contact park headquarters at 252-473-2111. |
Last updated: April 14, 2015