"The First Colony" Television Show's Last Broadcast Tonight

In a show produced by a local man, archaeologists say Spanish artifacts in western N.C. predate 'Lost Colony'

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By Ginger LivingstonThe Daily Reflector

Thursday, January 31, 2008

A public television show produced by a local man and airing tonight (repeats Sunday) features archeological work that could change how North Carolinians view the early history of the state.

"The First Lost Colony" is the segment airing locally at 8:30 p.m. on UNC-TV's "Exploring North Carolina" on Suddenlink channel 4. The show was co-produced and photographed by Pitt County resident Joe Albea.

Archaeologists studying the site of a 16th century Spanish fort in Burke County have found pottery shards from olive jars, finishing nails and lead balls used in muskets.

"The First Lost Colony" examines the work archeologists from North Carolina, South Carolina and Illinois are doing at a Burke County farm. Scientists are certain it is the location of Fort San Juan, one of five colonies the Spanish established in the interior United States about 20 years before the British sent its failed colony to Roanoke Island in what is now Dare County. That group of men and women became the storied "Lost Colony" that vanished, leaving only the word "Croatoan" carved on a tree.

"The 16th century for the large part is forgotten but there was a lot of exploration of the continent at that time," Albea said.

The N.C. Natural History Museum hosted a premiere of the show Wednesday night in Raleigh. About 250 attended the event, including the site's discoverer, Warren Wilson College professor and archeologist David Moore, and his colleagues Robin Beck with Southern Illinois University and Christopher Rodning with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

http://www.archaeologynews.org/story.asp?ID=259706&Title=In%20a%20show%20produced%20by%20a%20local%20man,%20archaeologists%20say%20Spanish%20...

To read more about the work at the Berry site, visit http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~storyteller/NEWS/NEWS-jbowers-2006-9-14-11-2-53.shtml

Read more:

http://www.worldsedge.net/desoto/BECK_FROM%20JOARA%20TO%20CHIAHA.htm

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:GLvXxydhHfYJ:www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/collateral/articles/F05.first.people.pdf+de+soto+fort+burke+county&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us