Noël Hume discovered and excavated the 17th century site of Wolstenholme Towne, at Carter's Grove Plantation just east of Williamsburg.
In retirement, he directed an excavation (1991–92) at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and discovered Thomas Harriot's 1585–86 "science center" there.
It fell to Noël Hume's books, lectures, and television presentations to help bring it to the forefront of his profession, where it stands today," the University of Virginia Press said in its fall 2010 catalogue, which features his autobiography, A Passion for the Past: The Odyssey of a Transatlantic Archaeologist.
This book should be a professional classic, to be read alongside other memoirs like those of Grahame Clark, Glyn Daniel, Gertrude Caton-Thompson, and Mortimer Wheeler."
[7] Noël Hume was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain in 1993 and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.)