Chesapeake Indians

In 1585, two towns of the Chesapeake Indians called Apasus and Chesepiooc were visited by the English Roanoke expedition and later included in Theodor De Bry's map of Virginia. Archaeological research conducted in the Great Neck neighborhood in the 1970s and 1980s yielded evidence of continual habitation for at least one thousand years before 1600 A.D. Several house sites were found, along with part of a palisade, pottery, trash pits, shell beads, and stone tools. The remains of 64 Chesapeake Indians from the Great Neck site were reburied by members of the Nansemond Indian tribe at nearby First Landing State Park in 1997.

Department of Historic Resources, 2008