Ancient Map Gives Clue to Fate of 'Lost Colony' (Britain's Roanoke Island in the Late 16th Century)

The Telegraph ^ | 04 May 2012 | The Telegraph

[DogByte6RER]

A new look at a 425-year-old map has yielded a tantalising clue about the fate of the Lost Colony, the settlers who disappeared from Britain's Roanoke Island in the late 16th century.

Experts from the First Colony Foundation and the British Museum in London discussed their findings Thursday at a scholarly meeting on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Their focus: the "Virginia Pars" map of Virginia and North Carolina created by explorer John White in the 1580s and owned by the British Museum since 1866.

"We believe that this evidence provides conclusive proof that they moved westward up the Albemarle Sound to the confluence of the Chowan and Roanoke rivers," said James Horn, vice president of research and historical interpretation at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and author of a 2010 book about the Lost Colony.

"Their intention was to create a settlement. And this is what we believe we are looking at with this symbol – their clear intention, marked on the map ..."

The American and British scholars believe the fort symbol could indicate where the settlers went. The British researchers joined the Thursday meeting via webcast.

In a joint announcement, the museums said, "First Colony Foundation researchers believe that it could mark, literally and symbolically, 'the way to Jamestown.' As such, it is a unique discovery of the first importance."

White made the map and other drawings when he travelled to Roanoke Island in 1585 on an expedition commanded by Sir Ralph Lane. In 1587, a second colony of 116 English settlers landed on Roanoke Island, led by White. He left the island for England for more supplies but couldn't return again until 1590 because of the war between England and Spain.

[DogByte6RER]

Attached to the map are two patches. One patch appears to merely correct a mistake on the map, but the other – in what is modern-day Bertie County in northeastern North Carolina – hides what appears to be a fort. Another symbol, appearing to be the very faint image of a different kind of fort, is drawn on top of the patch.

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

Neat. Saw this earlier, but didn’t have a chance to post it.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Engraved-on-His-hands. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. Is this Walter Raleigh's 'lost colony' drawn in invisible ink?.. Researchers say they have new clue to Lost Colony Rewriting History: Alwyn Ruddock and John Cabot To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Upstate NY Guy]

Way cool.

[shatcher]

It is interesting people are still hypothesizing about the Lost Colony. When we visited there a few years ago, they were unofficially saying “Croatoan” was the name of a group of natives that lived near Cape Hatteras. There is evidence that there were some “Caucasian” natives found there centuries later.

[Brass Lamp]

"First Colony Foundation researchers believe that it could mark, literally and symbolically, 'the way to Jamestown.'

My Garmin can mark the way to Jamestown, 'cause Jamestown ain't the lost colony. If this can reveal the fate of Roanoke, then cool.

[SuziQ]

So are they saying that the ‘Lost Colony’ wasn’t ‘lost’ at all, it just moved upriver?