NEW DISCOVERY IN 400-YEAR-OLD MAP COULD LEAD TO SOLVING THE GREATEST MYSTERY IN AMERICA
According to experts, they may have discovered the fate of a group of American settlers who appeared to have disappeared quickly more than 400 years ago. Since we have so many ways to keep track of things in the modern world, documenting history is much simpler than it has ever been. Keeping a virtual journal has never been simpler, and most people can record HD videos of everything that happens on their phones. This raises a mystery that has been discussed by scholars for hundreds of years: it was not possible to accomplish this 400 years ago.
What happened to a group of colonists that arrived at an island between North Carolina and the Outer Banks to establish the first permanent English settlement in 1587? A little more than 100 English settlers came to Roanoke, but after a few years, they appeared to vanish completely. Researchers have proposed that they were killed by hostile Spaniards or native Americans, or that they perished from famine, disease, or a natural disaster, but the theories surrounding their disappearance paint a rather dismal picture for the people.
Experts now think that a map called "La Virginea Pars" might contain the solution and be able to unravel the mystery surrounding the Roanoke colony. The National Park Service claims that the map was created by cartographer and Governor John White, who founded the colony and only found the word "CROATOAN" carved in a tree when he returned in 1590. Parts of the North Carolina coastline are shown on the map, extending from the northeastern town of Currituck to the coast's midpoint. But back in 2012, scientists discovered a little-known fact about the 400 map that they think helps explain what might have happened to the settlers.
The outlines of what appeared to be two forts, one 50 miles west of Roanoke, were concealed in invisible ink when placed on a lightbox. It is believed that the invisible ink was used to protect information about the colonies from the Spanish. Kim Sloan, a curator, told Popular Mechanics (via GB News) that they had "just found the intended site for the 'Cittie of Raleigh,' the colony that John White was sent to Virginia to found." The theory has been supported by the discovery of European ceramic fragments in and around Site X, the location where the fort is believed to have been.
The pottery found was "limited to the earliest settlement sites in Virginia, possibly dating back to the sixteenth century," according to archaeologist Nicholas Luccketti. Items like a shoelace tip and tenter hook that are thought to have belonged to Roanoke settlers were discovered during a follow-up investigation. According to The New York Post, although it is thought that Roanoke settlers may have camped there, it is unlikely that the entire colony was present. The term "CROATOAN" was the name of another island just south of Roanoke, and a Native American tribe called it home, so some people question this possibility. This has been interpreted as a sign that they merely fled their original settlement and relocated there.