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8 Geophysics and the Search for Raleigh’s Outpost on Trinidad Eric Klingelhofer Fieldwork searching for evidence of Sir Walter Raleigh’s briefly occupied Caribbean outpost onTrinidad is part of a long-term study of English protocolonial expansion. Documentary and cartographic sources pointed to a location on Trinidad as the site of earthwork fortifications erected for forces to engage in exploration and colonization. Among the earliest English sites in the New World, it stemmed from Sir Walter Raleigh’s efforts to confront Philip of Spain and to found a rival, Elizabethan empire. The project, funded by Mercer University, began in 1996 and since then one-week seasons of fieldwork have usually taken place in alternate years. A site at Los Gallos Point, Trinidad, was studied by geophysical surveys using a magnetometer and a resistivity meter, as well as soil sampling and the experimental use of soil thermography. Anomalies were tested by excavation, with positive , though not definitive, results. Because the scope of the project has been limited and the fort had been occupied for only a matter of weeks, the site has not yet yielded identifiably sixteenth-century artifacts, but soil changes do corroborate the geophysics. Future excavation will supply additional stratigraphy , and more intensive geophysical surveys will be used to expand the existing data. In 1997, 1998, 2002, and 2004, I undertook on behalf of Mercer University and the National Archaeological Committee,Trinidad and Tobago, archaeological explorations for the site of a fort built by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595. One of the earliest English sites overseas, the fort is known to have stood at the southwest corner of Trinidad,close to Venezuela’s Orinoco River,which Raleigh explored in his search for El Dorado, the mythical City of Gold. Sir Walter was famous for his explorations and his interest in English colonization but also for having introduced tobacco from Trinidad to Queen Elizabeth’s court and for making smoking a symbol of the fashionable gentleman. In 1595 Raleigh constructed a fortified base camp for his expedition to El Dorado,which he undertook after having expelled the Spanish from Trinidad and claiming it in the name of Queen Elizabeth. The locale of Raleigh’s fort was determined by me 156 / Eric Klingelhofer to be at Los Gallos Point,Trinidad (Figure 8.1),based upon documentary study (British Library n.d.; Camba 1842; Lopez 1791; Map of Ponce Province 1898) and a review of secondary sources. Protecting Raleigh’s fleet in Columbus Bay with mounted cannon, the fort may be expected to have similarities with the other two Elizabethan planned defenses in the New World: Sir Richard Grenville ’s 1585 fortified encampment on Puerto Rico and the 1586/1587 fort on Roanoke Island,North Carolina (Klingelhofer 2000).Like the other two sites,Los Gallos was occupied only briefly, because Raleigh quickly abandoned Trinidad when he failed to find quantities of gold. METHODS Magnetometry The potential of the locality was corroborated by field inspection in May 1997, when a team of Mercer University students and I examined the topography of the area of Columbus Bay and Los Gallos Point, at 10° 05′ N, 65° 54′ W in southwestern Trinidad (Figure 8.2). The next stage of research was to locate the fort site more precisely. Attempts to acquire infrared photographs at a high resolution were met with disappointment (Nelson [SPOT Image Corporation ], personal communication 1997; Strande [USGS EROS Data Center], personal communication 1997). The most promising plan, and one that would need to be undertaken irregardless of the availability of aerial infrared photographs , was a geophysical survey of the location. A review of the various approaches (Tite 1972) ruled out some techniques as inappropriate (metal detectors ) or beyond the available budget (ground-penetrating radar) as the best geophysical means of obtaining evidence of Raleigh’s site. In May 1998 Mercer students carried out archaeological prospecting by remote sensing, using equipment and an operator from the University of Georgia geoarchaeology program, directed by Ervan Garrison (Littman 1998). This survey took place on the St. Quentin Estate coconut plantation at Columbus Bay using a singlecoil proton precession magnetometer, with data processed by Windsurf 6.04 surface mapping system (Figure 8.3). The survey covered two adjacent areas of the plantation: a 70-×-60-m North Survey Area bordering the mangrove swamp at Los Gallos Point and, separated by a modern road, a southern 90-×150 -m Main Survey Area along Columbus Bay beach (Figure 8.4...

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