Posted on 12/10/2013 4:32:10 PM PST by Theoria
Remote-sensing techniques have unearthed clues to the fate of settlers who mysteriously disappeared.
It's a mystery that has intrigued Americans for centuries: What happened to the lost colonists of North Carolina's Roanoke Island? (See "America's Lost Colony.")
The settlers, who arrived in 1587, disappeared in 1590, leaving behind only two clues: the words "Croatoan" carved into a fort's gatepost and "Cro" etched into a tree.
Theories about the disappearance have ranged from an annihilating disease to a violent rampage by local Native American tribes. Previous digs have turned up some information and artifacts from the original colonists but very little about what happened to them.
Until now.
Thanks to technological advances and a cover-up on a map, researchers are getting closer to finding out what happened to the lost colony of Roanoke Island.
What Do We Know?
The lost colonists were the third group of English arrivals on North Carolina’s Roanoke Island, settling near the modern-day town of Manteo.
The first group to arrive, in 1584, came to explore and map the land for future groups. A second group, which arrived in 1585, was charged with a military and scientific mission. But this second group's trip was far from peaceful.
"That's where tensions begin [with the local Native American tribes]," said Clay Swindell of the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, a member of the archaeology team investigating the colony. He says that this second group was driven out in 1586 by local tribes angry that the colonists were taking up good land and resources.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
ping.
The answer is: No.
Truth be known, the only thing that has intrigued me is that refrigerator light that always seems to be on when I open the door......
...and those darn socks which disappear from my dryer.
You, too?
Very interesting. I wonder what the signs were for if indeed they did settle to the west. Start digging. :)
If they were absorbed by local tribes, wouldn’t DNA testing give a clue?
I seem to remember that years ago some stones were found that indicated the colony was captured or sided with a tribe that headed north, but that the Establishment said they were forgeries and relegated them to the basement.
I want to know why you can’t tickle yourself. Or why you don’t sneeze in your sleep.
The mystery was solved on a Lovejoy Mysteries 2 hour episode years ago ...
I seem to remember hearing awhile ago that generations after they disappeared, a native tribe from that area had many members with blue eyes and various traits that would indicate a bi~racial heritage.
I suspect they did what the Vikings did in Greenland when the settlement became untenable. They joined the Indians/Eskimos.
A Later settlers met Indians with names that were highly echoic of certain names of the colonists. Dare is a long time traditional family names among the Indians thereabouts, among others. Actually Indians didn’t have family names prior to Roanoke.
I was just looking for a place to crash.....
I always thought that the message Croatoan was an incomplete grocery list and the person just didn’t know how to spell Croutons.
When I was four my father told me it was "Joe Shlook the midget" who turned the light on. Both parents told me years later that I then drove both of them crazy repeatedly opening the door quickly to try to get a glimpse of ol'Joe. Thank you for the memory.
There were groups here with European features and coloration to an extent, and some reportedly even had rudimentary understanding of English, when the earliest acknowledged English exploration and settlement occurred. Most notably the Lumbee tribe claim descent from the “lost” colony on Roanoke Island, but other old triracial isolate groups have as well, on up into the Blue Ridge. The history of this continent is more complicated than generally acknowledged, as far as migration, settlement and eventual intermarriage between Europeans and so-called native tribes. It was going on before John White ever sketched a map of the NC barrier islands, before Juan Pardo ever built a short-lived garrison, before Hernando de Soto ever wandered about looking for gold. Ocean currents were and are conducive, throw a message in a bottle into the ocean at Hatteras Island and it turns up in County Cork.
check the dark side of the moon
i wonder why there seems to be no anecdotals for this apparent dispersal and relocation
You saying YOU can't? You don't know the fun you're missing..........
Joe died shortly after the invention of the microwave........yep, you guessed it.
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