Pottery fragments connected to lost Roanoke colony, team finds

Two minuscule objects found on Roanoke Island may yet provide some big hints as to what happened there in the 1580s, leading to the mysterious disappearance of Roanoke Colony.

The objects were two fragments of pottery, both perhaps ¾ of an inch (two centimeters) across, but are being described as the most significant pieces of pottery found in the area since the 1940s, according to local news site WTKR.

Found around 75 yards (68 meters) from the site is believed to have held the 16^th-century fort built just before the arrival of those who would form the Lost Colony, the sherds are blue, white, and brown. They have been identified as pieces of an ointment or medicine jar dating to the time period of the first expeditions to Roanoke or the attempted establishment of two permanent colonies, all of which took place between 1584 and 1587.

Of course, the most famous of the colonies—now known as the Lost Colony—was the one established in 1587. Its governor left several months into its establishment to secure supplies in England; when he returned in 1590, the entire colony of more than 200 people had simply vanished, only leaving the word “CROATOAN” carved on a fence post.

“The pottery itself is a type of pottery which is a tin-glaze,” said Eric Deetz, an archaeologist with the First Colony Foundation who is a member of the team who found the pottery, according to the Huffington Post. “This form was pretty much only used between the 1570s and 1620s.”

According to Deetz, the sherds formed a jar that would have been about three inches (7.6 cm) tall and 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) in diameter.

So what does this mean for the Lost Colony?

“I think it’s another piece of the puzzle that you can connect to the Raleigh colonies,” said Jami Lanier, Cultural Resources Manager for The Outer Banks Group, according to WTKR.

And of course, with a find such as this, archaeologists can add to their knowledge of what life was like in the colony, perhaps even testing the jars for residues to see what illnesses colonists were attempting to fight. The spread of disease across the newly-formed colony may have played a large role in its disappearance, perhaps driving colonists to seek aid from local Native American tribes.

“That’s the most important value is the stories they [the sherds] can tell and they are pieces of the puzzle that can perhaps help solve the mystery,” added Lanier.

Can you really learn all that much from a tiny potsherd?

While two tiny pieces of pottery seem like they’re pretty insignificant, in truth, you can learn a surprising amount from them. Things like the materials used (Where is the clay from? How fine or coarse is it? What kind of paint and/or glaze is used?); painted designs or writing on the face of the sherd; or the shape of the sherd (like if it was part of a lip or a base, or if designs were impressed on the surface) can tell you enormous amounts of information, like the time period, the wealth of the owner, and the shape of the entire object.

“A single piece is as good as a whole pot,” Deetz told Huffington Post.

In the case of the sherds here, for example, the type of paint used and the design give archaeologists the time period; their shapes were used to extrapolate the shape of the rest of the object. (The sherds were large enough “to give me the size and the shape and the form of the pot,” said Deetz).

Incidentally, in archaeology, the difference between a sherd and a shard (besides a single letter) is the difference between finding ceramic fragments and finding glass or obsidian ones—and also helps you keep from being mocked by your peers.

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Image credit: National Parks Service

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