Book puts late archaeologist’s Raleigh report into public view
Ivor Noël Hume’s colleagues get 1990s work on the record
Seven years after archaeologist Ivor Noël Hume of Williamsburg died, a new book by him, about the historical Fort Raleigh on Roanoke Island, has been published.
Eric Klingelhofer of Nags Head and Nicholas Luccketti of Williamsburg edited “Excavating Fort Raleigh: Archaeology at England’s First Colony,” about the 1991 to 1993 Outer Banks dig. Previous archaeological discoveries at the small earthen fort site had left many questions by “outwork” of the fort that held artifacts believed to have been associated with the 1585-86 colony.
William Kelso, most recently the lead archaeologist for the multidecade Jamestown Rediscovery archaeology exploration on Jamestown Island, was also part of Hume’s crew of internationally well-known archaeologists. Others associated with the two-year dig included archaeologist David Hazzard, also of Williamsburg, and artifacts specialist Audrey Noël Hume, the team leader’s wife.
Among the questions: Was there a wooden fort associated with the earthworks?
The excavation didn’t find evidence of a fort but did reveal the location of a scientific workshop established by English scientist Thomas Harriot and metallurgist Joachim Gans of Prague. The science center was where the archaeologists believe the first English colonists
were testing various metal ores. According to the editors, bricks also found at the site were
believed to have been part of the metallurgical furnace.
The village and fort of the 1585 colonists — led by Ralph Lane and used by the 1587 “Lost Colony” — have never been found, so the science center is a crucial finding. Hume’s manuscript is critical, said Klingelhofer, professor emeritus in history at Mercer University. Hume and his two colleagues knew an explanation of the dig and its findings was important:
“If a report on a dig is not available to the public, it’s as if the dig never happened.”
The manuscript was written in 1995. Hume gave it to the First Colony Foundation to be published on a future date. He died on
Feb. 4, 2017. The foundation had been formed by a group of archaeologists
dedicated to research, education and interpretation, focusing on Sir Walter
Raleigh’s attempts to establish English colonies in the 1580s on Roanoke Island — then called Virginia.
Klingelhofer and Luccketti are the foundation’s vice presidents for research.
When money, time and effort coincided, the two worked to put the manuscript into publishable form; it was produced recently by The History Press of Charleston, South Carolina.
The book project was delayed in part to determine if the National Park Service was going to publish the manuscript, Luccketti said.
This book, Klingelhofer said, is similar to what Hume did with the story of Martin’s Hundred, a major early 1600s settlement downriver from Jamestown.
“He tells the story of the excavation and weaves in the story of the site. Something that Bill Kelso has called ‘humanistic archaeology’ — that catches the public’s attention.”
The Fort Raleigh book is “a debt I owe to Noël. In fact, I owe my whole career to Noël and Bill Kelso,” said Luccketti, president of the James River Institute for Archaeology.
The foundation and National Park Service continued excavations at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site in 2021, focusing on the scientific laboratory. In addition to artifacts associated with Harriot and Gans’ workshop, an 8-foot square watchtower was uncovered.
A group of fire pits was found in the watchtower’s floor; they could have been used to heat the tower in the winter.