Latest news with #LostColony
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'Lost Colony' of Roanoke may have assimilated into Indigenous society, archaeologist claims — but not everyone is convinced
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Archaeologists have uncovered two large piles of iron flakes on North Carolina's Hatteras Island that they say are evidence of a 16th-century "Lost Colony" of English settlers who disappeared in 1587. But some experts are unconvinced and say more evidence is needed. "We've been digging there for 10 years off and on," Mark Horton, an archaeology professor at the Royal Agricultural University in the U.K., told Live Science, "and I think the real breakthrough was the hammer scale mixed in with 16th-century artifacts." Hammer scale is a flaky byproduct of traditional blacksmithing. When iron is heated, a thin layer of iron oxide can form, which is then crushed into small pieces as the blacksmith hammers the iron. "The colonists must have been desperate for a type of material that they otherwise didn't have," Horton said. "They're forging new iron artifacts from the material that they've got with them," he said, to make "new nails for building houses or ships." Horton studies the Lost Colony, a group of about 120 English settlers who arrived on Roanoke Island in North Carolina's Outer Banks in 1587. The colonists struggled to survive and sent their leader, John White, back to England for supplies. When White returned in 1590, he couldn't find his compatriots — but he discovered the word "CROATOAN" carved into wood. For centuries, historians and archaeologists have been puzzled by the disappearance of the colony. They've wondered whether the Croatoan tribe killed the settlers or whether the English moved elsewhere, perhaps to live with members of the Croatoan tribe on what is now called Hatteras Island. Related: Jamestown colonists killed and ate the dogs of Indigenous Americans "But then last summer, we did an excavation on Hatteras Island, and we found hammer scale in a pit underneath a thick shell midden that contains virtually no European material in it at all," Horton said, adding that he thinks the English basically assimilated into the Indigenous tribe. Radiocarbon dating of the layer of dirt in which the hammer scale was found suggests its age aligns with the Lost Colony. Since hammer scale is waste and not something that is traded, and because the Indigenous people are not known to have used iron forging technology, this iron trash strongly suggests that the English settlers made it to Hatteras Island in the late 16th century, Horton said. His group's finding has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. The new discovery fits in well with historical and archaeological information, Kathleen DuVal, a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Live Science. "It absolutely makes sense that the Lost Colony would have moved to Hatteras Island," DuVal said. "They wrote exactly where they were going: to Croatoan." But not everyone is convinced by the piles of hammer scale. "I would like to see a hearth if we're talking about forging activity," Charles Ewen, a professor emeritus of archaeology at East Carolina University, told Live Science. And even then, the hammer scale may be from Indigenous people's repurposing of the colonists' items for their own use, Ewen said, or it could even be trash from 16th-century explorers and settlers who stopped over while sailing the Gulf Stream up the East Coast. "The hammer scale is just not doing it for me without good context — and without a report, I'm not seeing good context," he said. Horton said that, with archaeological excavations largely complete at the site — which is on private land, with cooperation from the landowner — he and his team plan to move forward with a publication. RELATED STORIES —Bear hair and fish weirs: Meet the Indigenous people combining modern science with ancestral principles to protect the land —Ancient DNA reveals mysterious Indigenous group from Colombia that disappeared 2,000 years ago —Ancient Indigenous lineage of Blackfoot Confederacy goes back 18,000 years to last ice age, DNA reveals "The hammer scale is another piece of really compelling evidence that we've got," Horton said, "but there are still several loose ends." For example, it is still a mystery whether some of the colonists moved elsewhere and whether some of them died at the Roanoke Island or Hatteras Island settlements. Ewen, who co-authored the 2024 book "Becoming the Lost Colony: The History, Lore and Popular Culture of the Roanoke Mystery" (McFarland, 2024), said the archaeological and historical evidence does not clarify what happened to the Lost Colony. But he thinks that someday, the mystery might be solved, particularly "if we could find European burials that we could tie to the 16th century with European materials and not trade items," Ewen said.
Fox News
07-06-2025
- General
- Fox News
Mystery of America's 'Lost Colony' may finally be solved after 440 years, archaeologists say
A team of researchers believes they may have cracked one of America's most enduring legends: Where did the settlers of the Roanoke Colony go? The Roanoke Colony, also known as the Lost Colony, was the first permanent English settlement in the United States. A group of over 100 colonists settled on North Carolina's Roanoke Island in 1587, led by Sir Walter Raleigh. John White, the governor of the colony, returned to England for supplies in 1587. When he came back to Roanoke Island in August 1590, he found the settlement mysteriously abandoned – and all the colonists, including his daughter Eleanor Dare and his granddaughter Virginia Dare, gone. One of the only clues remaining at the site was the word "CROATOAN" carved into a palisade. It either referred to Croatoan Island, which is now called Hatteras Island, or the Croatoan Indians. The mystery has haunted Americans and Brits for the past four centuries, with several investigations launched into the matter. Whether the colonists were killed by Native Americans, starved to death or left for greener pastures has eluded historians. But new research suggests the colonists' fate may not have been tragic after all. Mark Horton, an archaeology professor at Royal Agricultural University in England, spoke with Fox News Digital about his findings. "This is metal that has to be raised to a relatively high temperature … which, of course, [requires] technology that Native Americans at this period did not have." For the past decade, the British researcher has worked with the Croatoan Archaeological Society's Scott Dawson to uncover the mystery. Horton said they've uncovered proof the colonists assimilated into Croatoan society, thanks to a trash heap. (See the video at the top of this article.) "We're looking at the middens — that's the rubbish heaps — of the Native Americans living on Hatteras Island, because we deduced that they would have very rapidly been assimilated into the Native American population," Horton said. The smoking gun at the site? Hammerscale, which are tiny, flaky bits of iron that come from forging iron. Horton said it's definitive proof of iron-working on Hatteras Island, which could have only been done by English colonists. "The key significance of hammerscale … is that it's evidence of iron-working, of forging, at that moment," he said. "Hammerscale is what comes off a blacksmith's forge." Horton added, "This is metal that has to be raised to a relatively high temperature … which, of course, [requires] technology that Native Americans at this period did not have." Hammerscale shows that the English "must have been working" in this Native American community, according to the expert. But what if the hammerscale came longer after the Roanoke Colony was abandoned? Horton said that's unlikely. "We found it stratified … underneath layers that we know date to the late 16th or early 17th century," he said. "So we know that this dates to the period when the lost colonists would have come to Hatteras Island." "It's a combination of both its archaeological position but also the fact that it's evidence of people actually using an English technology." At the site, archaeologists also found guns, nautical fittings, small cannonballs, an engraved slate and a stylus, in addition to wine glasses and beads – which all paint a vivid picture of life on Hatteras Island in the 17th century. When asked if the colonists could have been killed in a later war, Horton said they survived among the Croatoans and successfully assimilated. "We have one little snippet of historical evidence from the 1700s, which describes people with blue or gray eyes who could remember people who used to be able to read from books," he said. "Also, they said there was this ghost ship that was sent out by a man called Raleigh." Horton added, "We think that they assimilated into the Native American community and their descendants, their sons, their granddaughters, their grandsons carried on living on Hatteras Island until the early 18th century." When asked if he's officially solved the mystery, Horton said that though the archaeological evidence is definitive, the legend will probably still endure. "Have we solved the mystery? Well, you know, it's pretty good evidence, but there's always more work to be done," he said. Horton added, "And people love mysteries. They hate resolving things one way or the other. So I'm sure that the mystery will continue, you know, whatever the scientific evidence says."
