New Exhibit Opening At Fort Raleigh National Historic Site

A new exhibit that explores how archaeology can help unravel the story of what happened to the "First Colony" opens Monday at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site in North Carolina's Outer Banks.

The exhibit, Beneath the Sands: Past and Present Archaeology at Fort Raleigh, is a joint production of the National Park Service, the First Colony Foundation, and Friends of the Outer Banks History Center.

The exhibition is presented as part of Roanoke Colonies Archaeology and History Week and is made possible by support from the Percy W. and Elizabeth G. Meekins Charitable Trust. Other activities of the week will include a weeklong series of events with theatre, symposium, and archaeological research at Roanoke Island Festival Park.

Outer Banks Superintendent Mike Murray announced that many of the artifacts, on display for the first time, show how scientific analysis of these objects, when combined with historical context, can provide clues to what may be America's greatest historical mystery.

Roanoke Colonies Archaeology and History Week includes a week-long professional archaeological search for evidence of Sir Walter Raleigh's colonies and Algonkian Indian habitation on Roanoke Island, with an interactive educational classroom without walls, and a public symposium focused on new discoveries.

Among the planned activities:

* Two of the nation's pre-eminent historical archaeologists, Dr. Eric Klingelhofer and Nicholas Luccketti, will direct and train selected Dare County high school students and adult volunteers in field excavations.

* The original play, Shepherd of the Ocean, will be presented on Monday evening, October 10, by Elizabeth R & Company at Roanoke Island Festival Park and begins at 7 p.m.

* Tuesday-Friday, noted archaeologists and historians will present free public programs on the latest research on the Algonkian Indians of North Carolina, theories on the disappearance of Sir Walter Raleigh's "Lost Colonists," the settlement of Roanoke Island after the disappearance of the "Lost Colony," and the scientific search for the Archaeological remains of the Roanoke colonies.

Programs will be presented at the Roanoke Island Festival Park in Manteo at 7:00 pm.