North Carolina Lost Colony - A few years ago, researchers discovered a clue leading back to a North Carolina lost colony's origins, a centuries-old map. The missing men, women and children of North Carolina's "Lost Colony" disappeared from Roanoke Island in the 16th century.
The new clue and findings into North Carolina's lost colony have reportedly led researchers to believe that they may now be closer to solving a mystery that is more than 400 years old.
The mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke has resulted to many theories over the years. However, there is still no final determination of what happened to the 120 English settlers who appeared to have just vanished.
The Associated Press reports that the clue into North Carolina's lost colony, a map of Virginia and North Carolina, which has been created by explorer John White in the 1580s, has led researchers to the area where they disappeared. The map reportedly includes a symbol which appears to be a fort in north eastern North Carolina.
"If we were finding this evidence at Roanoke Island, which is the well-established site of Sir Walter Raleigh's colony, we would have no hesitation to say this is evidence of Sir Walter Raleigh's colonies," said President Phil Evans of the First Colony Foundation.
"But because this is a new site and not associated with Sir Walter Raleigh, we have to hesitate and ask questions and learn more. It's not Roanoke Island. It's a new thing, and a new thing has to stand some tests," he added of the new finding into North Carolina's lost colony.
The clue was found and announced by researchers with the foundation and the British Museum in 2012. It had been owned by the museum since 1866.
The clue into North Carolina's lost colony who have disappeared from Roanoke Island in the late 16th century, was on the "Virginea Pars" map of Virginia and North Carolina.
Two patches are attached to the map were two patches, one appearing to correct a mistake and another appearing to be a fort, and in what is modern-day Bertie County in north eastern North Carolina. Another symbol looks to be the faint image of a sort kind of fort, drawn on top of the patch.
The American and British scholars believed this fort symbol to be indicative of where North Carolina's lost colony went, according to WRAL.
Tests on the map drawn by White appears to be drawn in invisible ink, the symbol of a fort that about 50 miles inland hidden from the naked eye.
The inked symbol in the map possibly showing where North Carolina's lost colony went is also hidden by a piece of paper glued over it. Researchers believe it was drawn with a substance using a mix of milk and citrus juice or urine, which is commonly used for invisible writing during that time, reports WYFF4.com.
Archaeologists were prompted to re-examine artifacts they found in previous years on private land near the site where North Carolina's lost colony possibly went.
They were encouraged to dig for more artifacts in 2012 and once again in 2014, according to an archaeologist named Nicholas Luccketti. He has surveyed and excavated Virginia sites since 1974 and has been on the foundation board since its beginning in 2006.
"It's fair to say it's a site of very great interest to us," Luccketti told the AP.
Artifacts that archaeologists dug from the site where North Carolina's lost colony possibly went included broken, everyday pottery, reports Newsmax.
According to researcher, more recent digs have also uncovered more artifacts appearing to be of the proper time period. This increased the hope that the mystery into where North Carolina's lost colony went may now be solved soon.
"Domestic wares are interesting to us," First Colony Foundation President Phil Evans told the AP. "It tells us people were there long enough to break stuff. ... We're getting these types of wares in sufficient numbers that we think people are there and they're doing something and they're there for a good bit of time."
North Carolina's lost colony included men, women, and children who arrived at Roanoke Island in 1587. White sailed back to England in 1587, and upon his return to the island in 1590, the colony was gone. The only clues that White found were the word "CROATOAN" carved on a gate post and the letters "CRO" on a tree, according to the North Carolina History Project.
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