How A Map Revealed Clues To The Fate Of The Roanoke Colony

You probably already know the basic story of the lost Roanoke colony: In 1587, a group of colonists arrived at Roanoke Island, between North Carolina and the Outer Banks, to establish the first permanent English settlement. The colony's leader, Governor White, soon returned to England to obtain needed supplies but was held up in England for three years while the English warred with Spain. When he was finally able to make it back in 1590, the settlement was found abandoned. The colonists had disappeared leaving only a mysterious message carved into a post in the settlement's fort: the word "CROATOAN." White interpreted this as meaning that the colony had been forced to relocate to Croatoan Island, but storms forced him to abandon his position and return to England before he could follow up on the lead.

    The mystery of the lost colony has been a favorite of those interested in the strange and unusual, with various theories advanced as to what happened to the colonists. The initial theory was that the colonists had been forced to abandon the settlement and sought shelter with a neighboring tribe. An investigation by the Jamestown colonists found evidence that the colonists had been massacred (which seems the most likely explanation). But theories abound, including some involving extraterrestrials!

     The Daily Mail has published the summary of a new theory. Its article, "Experts may have solved 'America's greatest mystery' after discovering hidden secrets in 400-year-old map," relates:

    The map, titled 'La Virginea Pars,' was drawn by John White, a cartographer who was part of the Roanoke colony. It depicts parts of the North Carolina shoreline running from the north-eastern community of Currituck down to the midpoint of the coast.

    A close inspection of the map revealed a blank spot. It appeared that someone had covered up a small section, but never drew a correction over it.

    That blank spot corresponds to a location near current-day Bertie County, on the western end of Albemarle Sound. This is less than 100 miles from where English witnesses last saw the colonists of Roanoke.

    It also happens to match the location of a site called 31BR246, where archaeologist Nicholas Luccketti of the James River Institute for Archaeology discovered pieces of English ceramic artifacts in 2007.

    This raised an interesting question: Could this be the location that the Roanoke settlers fled to from their island colony? 

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     In 2012, British Museum curator Kim Sloan and her colleague, paper conservator Alice Rugheimer, placed Governor White's map on a light box to reveal what was behind the blank cover-up.

    They found something they never expected to see: the symbol for a fort.

    'I said to Alice, 'I think we just discovered the intended site for the 'Cittie of Raleigh,' the colony that John White was sent to Virginia to found,' Sloan told Popular Mechanics. 'And then I think I swore.'

    Several years earlier, the archaeologist Luccketti found ceramic fragments at a site called 31BR246, which matched the fort location on the map.

    He determined that these fragments were Border ware, a specific type of English pottery that had been 'limited to the earliest settlement sites in Virginia, possibly dating back to the sixteenth century, he told Popular Mechanics. 

 Unfortunately, remote sensing techniques of the site--called "Site X"--did not reveal the remains of a fort. However, archaeologists have found material remains indicating that at least a small number of English settlers must have lived on the spot. 

    Based on the discovery of these artifacts, the FCF concluded that there was an English presence at Site X that could only have come from the Roanoke colonists.

    The experts speculated that these people could have been a small colonial family seeking the help from a Native American village called Mettaquem.

    The FCF plans to continue investigating Site X in search of more evidence of the English presence there, and any clues that could offer more information about what happened to the residents of the Lost Colony in 1587.