The Lost Beads of the Lost Colony: LA-ICP-MS Analysis of Glass Beads from Roanoke Island

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Excavations conducted by the First Colony Foundation on Roanoke Island from 2008-2010 uncovered a number of glass beads associated with the Roanoke Colony. These excavations, in the Hariot Woods, likely uncovered materials related to the 1585 Hariot/Gans workshop at Fort Raleigh. Here we present an elemental analysis of these glass beads using laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). With these analyses we evaluate the temporality, origins, and global itineraries of the glass beads recovered from Roanoke Island, comparing these data with our analyses of the glass beads from the Jamestown colony. Our analyses support the attribution of the Roanoke Island beads to the 16th century.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025   •
• 2025 SHA Poster Submissions

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow