In 1587, a group of English settlers established the Roanoke Colony on an island between what is now North Carolina and the Outer Banks. However, by 1590, the traces of the colony had disappeared, and nothing remained of over 100 people. The only clue left behind was the word Croatoan carved on a wooden post.
An ancient map dating back 400 years, titled La Virginea Pars and exhibited at the British Museum, was examined by experts, potentially revealing details that could solve the centuries-old mystery of the lost Roanoke colony, according to Mail Online.
In 1587, a group of English settlers established the Roanoke Colony on an island between what is now North Carolina and the Outer Banks. However, by 1590, the traces of the colony had disappeared, and nothing remained of over 100 people. The only clue left behind was the word Croatoan carved on a wooden post.
Recently, a closer inspection of Governor John White's map, La Virginea Pars, revealed two faint outlines that appeared to be repairs—small pieces of paper had been used to cover an error. Under advanced lighting techniques, experts discovered that one of these patches concealed a symbol of a fort, which could indicate the intended location of a new settlement.
"I said to Alice, 'I think we just discovered the predicted location for the City of Raleigh, the colony for which John White was sent to Virginia,'" said Kim Sloan, a British Museum curator who made the discovery with her colleague, paper conservator Alice Ruhamer, according to Mail Online.
The covered area on the map corresponds to a location near present-day Bertie County, at the western end of Albemarle Sound. This site, known as 31BR246 or Site X, is approximately 1.5 kilometers away from where the Roanoke Colony disappeared, less than 100 miles from where English witnesses last saw the colonists.
In 2007, archaeologist Nicholas Luccketti of the James River Institute for Archaeology discovered pieces of English ceramic artifacts at Site X. These artifacts included fragments of Border ware, a specific type of English pottery that had been restricted to the early settlements in Virginia, probably dating from the sixteenth century. The find suggests that archaeologists had stumbled upon a previously unknown English settlement.
The First Colony Foundation of North Carolina conducted further investigations at Site X, employing multiple types of satellite-based remote sensing technology. While they found no topographic features resembling a settlement like Jamestown or Plymouth, excavations unearthed additional English artifacts, such as pieces of Border ware, an early type of aglet (the metal tip of a shoelace), and a tenter hook (a nail used to secure cloth over a wooden frame).
Based on these discoveries, the First Colony Foundation concluded that there was an English presence at Site X that could only have come from the Roanoke colonists. Although the evidence suggests that the area was unlikely to be the relocation site of the entire colony, it could have served as a refuge for some of them. Experts hypothesized that these individuals might have been a small colonial family seeking the help of a nearby Native American village called Mettaquem, according to Mail Online.
The First Colony Foundation plans to continue investigating Site X in search of more evidence of English presence there and any clues that could provide more information about what happened to the inhabitants of the lost colony in 1587.
Another intriguing clue emerged in 1937 with the discovery of the Dare Stone, believed to have been written by Eleanor White Dare, the daughter of Governor John White. The stone possibly narrates the story of what happened to the colonists after they left Roanoke. On one side of the stone, under a cross (the emergency symbol), the message reads: "Ananias Dare & / Virginia Went Hence / Unto Heaven 1591 / Anye Englishman Shew / John White Govr Via."
The other side of the Dare Stone provides more details, written from Eleanor's perspective, describing how the colonists left Roanoke and endured two years of "Misarie." According to experts, the stone indicates that more than half of the colonists died. It also mentions that news eventually came of a ship arriving off the coast.
The mystery of the lost Roanoke Colony inspired numerous theories over the centuries. Some suggest that the colonists died from disease, were slaughtered by Native Americans or Spanish colonists, or assimilated into a nearby Native American tribe, either as friends or as slaves.
Governor John White had initially come to the area of the Roanoke Colony with his daughter Eleanor White Dare, who was expecting a baby. Several weeks after they landed in Roanoke, Eleanor gave birth to the first English baby born in the New World and named her Virginia Dare. White returned to England after his granddaughter's birth to seek more help, but due to the war with Spain, he could not return to the colony until 1590. When he finally managed to return on his granddaughter's third birthday, the colony was deserted, and he found no trace of anyone, only a sign bearing the name Croatoan.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.