Experts may have solved ‘America’s biggest mystery’ after discovering secrets hidden in 400-year-old map
Clues hidden in the details of a 400-year-old map could solve the mystery of the lost colony of Roanoke that scholars have spent hundreds of years searching for.
In 1587, a group of settlers arrived on an island between North Carolina and the Outer Banks to establish the first permanent English settlement.
But three years later, the more than 100 settlers and all traces of their settlement disappeared.
The map, titled ‘La Virginea Pars’, was drawn by John White, a cartographer who was part of the Roanoke colony. It represents portions of the North Carolina coast extending from the northeastern community of Currituck to the midpoint of the coast.
A close inspection of the map revealed a blank spot. It seemed like someone had covered a small section, but never issued a correction on it.
That blank spot corresponds to a location near present-day Bertie County, at the western end of Albemarle Sound. This is less than 100 miles from where English witnesses last saw the Roanoke settlers.
It also coincides with the location of a site called 31BR246, where archaeologist Nicholas Luccketti of the James River Institute for Archeology discovered pieces of English ceramic artifacts in 2007.
This raised an interesting question: could this be the location to which the Roanoke settlers fled from their island colony?
Close inspection of 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. One of the repairs was left completely blank, with no correction extracted on the amendment
Experts at the British Museum analyzed the map’s blank repair using a light box, revealing the symbol of a fort beneath. Experts now believe that Roanoke settlers moved to this site from their original location on the island.
More than 400 years ago, Queen Elizabeth I and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh hoped that the 1580s expedition to America would create a new capital for England, but something went horribly wrong.
The ship, carrying 115 explorers, was the first to bring women and children to the Americas.
It also coincides with the location of a site called 31BR246, where archaeologist Nicholas Luccketti of the James River Institute for Archeology had discovered pieces of ceramic artifacts in 2007.
The ship, carrying 115 explorers, was the first to bring women and children to the Americas.
The group included Governor John White’s pregnant daughter, Eleanor White Dare.
Several weeks after landing in Roanoke, Eleanor gave birth to the first English baby born in the New World and named her Virginia Dare.
Governor White soon returned to England to order more supplies, but was delayed in England for three years during the English war with Spain.
When he was finally able to return in 1590 on his granddaughter’s third birthday, the colony was deserted.
‘La Virginea Pars’ was drawn by John White, a cartographer who was part of the group of settlers who sailed to Roanoke Island in 1585 to establish the first permanent English settlement there. Today, this island is part of North Carolina
In 1587, a group of settlers arrived on Roanoke Island to establish the first permanent English settlement there. But three years later, the more than 100 settlers and all traces of their settlement disappeared, leaving only the word ‘Croatoan’ carved on a wooden post.
Archaeologists have discovered artifacts belonging to the people of the lost colony
The only trace of settlers he found was the word ‘Croatoan’ carved on a wooden post, which was the name of another island just south of Roanoke and a Native American tribe that lived there.
Numerous theories have emerged about what happened to the 115 English settlers.
Some suggest they died of disease, were massacred by Native Americans or Spanish settlers, or assimilated into a nearby Native American tribe, either as friends or slaves.
In 2012, British Museum curator Kim Sloan and her colleague, paper conservator Alice Rugheimer, placed Governor White’s map in a light box to reveal what was behind the blank cover-up.
They found something they never expected to see: the symbol of 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 find,” Sloan told Popular Mechanics. ‘And then I think I swore.’
Several years earlier, archaeologist Luccketti found pottery shards at a site called 31BR246, which matched the fort’s location on the map.
He determined that these fragments were Border Ware, a specific type of English pottery that had been limited to early settlement sites in Virginia, possibly dating back to the 16th century, he told Widespread Mechanics.
Another clue was discovered in 1937, the Dare Stone which was believed to be written by Eleanor White Dare, the daughter of Roanoke Governor John White, and possibly tells the story of what happened to the settlers when they left their colony in Roanoke.
Written from Eleanor’s perspective, it describes how the settlers abandoned Roanoke and endured two years of ‘Misarie’
The find suggested that archaeologists had stumbled upon a previously unknown English settlement.
When its marked location was discovered from White’s map years later, experts began to think that Roanoke settlers abandoned the island and traveled about 100 miles to 31BR246, now known as Site X.
The First Colony Foundation of North Carolina (FCF) conducted a more extensive investigation of the site using multiple types of satellite-based remote sensing technology, but the researchers found that “there are no topographic features that resemble a settlement like Jamestown or Plymouth,” according to the study.
Furthermore, the excavations did not reveal the fort that had been marked and then hidden on White’s map.
But he unearthed more English artifacts, including additional pieces of frontier ware, an early type of aglet (the metal end of a cord), a field hook (a nail used to secure cloth over a wooden frame), and more.
While this suggested that the area was unlikely to have been a relocation site for the entire Roanoke colony, it could still have been a refuge for some of them.
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 settlers.
Experts speculated that these people could have been a small colonial family seeking help from a Native American village called Mettaquem.
The FCF plans to continue investigating Site
Another clue, known as The Dare Stone, was discovered in 1937.
Thought the writing is believed to have been left by Eleanor White Dare, the daughter of John White, and possibly tells the story of what happened to the settlers after they left their colony in Roanoke.
On one side of the stone, beneath a cross (the symbol of emergency), the message reads: “Ananias Dare & / Virginia went therefore / to heaven 1591 / Anye English Shew / John White Govr through.”
The Other Side of the Stone provides more details about what supposedly happened to the colonists after Governor White returned to England in 1587. Written from Eleanor’s perspective, it describes how the colonists abandoned Roanoke and endured two years of ‘Misarie’. ‘.
According to experts, the stone indicates that more than half of the settlers died. He also mentions that the news finally came from a ship coming to shore.
