Latest news with #MarkHorton
BBC News
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
BBC presenter Mark Horton nearly loses hand in boat accident
A TV presenter and archaeologist almost lost his "digging hand" in a boat accident after getting caught in rigging, emergency services have Horton, presenter of BBC Two's Coast, was carrying out maintenance on a yacht at Gloucestershire's Lydney Harbour in April when the vessel fell on its was catapulted three or four metres into very shallow muddy water, injuring his arm in the process. Members of the public hauled him out and an air ambulance medic ensured he did not lose blood flow to his from Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) said it was "incredibly fulfilling" to know they helped to make sure he could keep doing what he loves. Mr Horton was lucky to have bystanders nearby when he was catapulted into the mud. They immediately called 999 and then rolled him onto a tarpaulin and up a slipway, GWAAC helpers also found a piece of driftwood and used gaffer tape to put his arm in a pre-hospital emergency medicine trainee Dr Celestine Weegenaar straightened his arm before the journey to hospital because the blood flow to the hand and nerves were Horton had to have surgery on his hand and is still having physiotherapy but said no long-term damage had been done. Mr Horton, an archaeology professor at the University of Bristol, said: "I think myself quite lucky."Perhaps it was my old-fashioned Titanic-style life jacket that took the brunt of the fall and saved me from a far worse fate."What GWAAC did for me, was help me to carry on being an archaeologist, to do my livelihood. It's my digging hand, you see."Dr Weegenaar said: "As a trainee critical care doctor, it was a valuable opportunity to put my training into practice in a high-stakes situation. "It was even more rewarding to see him afterwards. "Knowing we played a part in preserving his ability to keep doing what he loves was incredibly fulfilling."
BBC News
13-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Museum of Gloucester artefacts unboxed by public
Boxes of artefacts belonging to a museum, including many which have never been displayed before, are being unpacked by members of the public.A total of 6,658 boxes from the Museum of Gloucester's collection are being sorted at the city's Discovery Centre in Eastgate Shopping Johansson-Hartley, the museum's collection officer, said Anglo Saxon leather and a Roman tile with a print of a dog were among the "amazing" items which had so far been unpacked, relabelled and "preserved for the future".Archaeologist Mark Horton said the year-long project made archaeology "accessible" to the public. Ms Johansson-Hartley said some of the boxes had not been opened up "for 50 or 60 years"."We're making sure everything is preserved for the future."We wanted to be in a public space particularly because we wanted to open up the heritage that we have hidden away in storage to the public," she said. People can drop into the shopping centre to witness history being unboxed and offer a helping hand of the archaeological collections at the Museum of Gloucester date back to the Roman and medieval periods."We do have some that predate that to the Dobunni tribe - the Iron Age - and pre-that as well," Ms Johansson-Hartley said. Mr Horton said the project, which is supported by Cotswold Archaeology and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, was changing the public's perception of archaeology."Everyone thinks all these artefacts are precious because they're put in museums, in cabinets and no-one can touch them without proper gloves on."But this is the real world of archaeology... to make this accessible to the community who can work on this material without worrying it's going to break or anything is so fantastic," he added.
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."
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Mystery of America's 'lost colony' that haunted Stephen King is SOLVED as new evidence unlocks 400-year-old secret
They're barely larger than a grain of rice, but these flakes of rusted metal could solve a mystery that's puzzled America and its early settlers for centuries. The tiny hammerscales are a byproduct of metal forging, and the archaeologists who dug them up say they show what befell the famed 'lost colony' of Roanoke in the late 1500s. For 435 years, questions have lingered about the fate of the 118 colonists of the first English settlement in North America on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. History says their leader left them to fend for themselves in 1587, when he went on a mission to restock supplies. When the supply ship returned in 1590, he found an abandoned settlement stripped of anything that could be carried away. At an entryway, the word 'CROATOAN' was carved into a wooden post. It suggested the colonists had left to join the friendly Croatoan natives on what is now Hatteras Island, 50 miles south. But their fate was soon shrouded in mystery and folklore. Some reports emerged saying they'd been massacred by another tribe, while others said they moved inland, were attacked by the Spanish, died from disease or died at sea while trying to sail back to England. When resupply ships returned to Roanoke Island, all 118 colonists had mysteriously gone, and the word 'CROATOAN' was carved into a wooden post Archaeologists Mark Horton (behind) and Scott Dawson (in front) say they can now confirm what happened to the 'lost' colonists The enigma has inspired novels, plays and movies as well as debate about relations between settlers and natives years before Jamestown colonizers and Mayflower pilgrims showed up. The star character of these retellings is often Virginia Dare - the first English baby born in North America - whose parents were among the middle-class Londoners who embarked on the ill-fated trans-Atlantic expedition. The saga also features Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake and Pocahontas, the spirited Native American woman from a nearby tribe. Now, archaeologists Mark Horton and Scott Dawson say they know what happened to the lost settlers: They joined the Croatoans and assimilated into the community. The pair have been digging for more than a decade around Buxton, on Hatteras Island, and in April, they identified large quantities of hammerscale in the soil dating back to the 16th Century. The metal-working technology was familiar to the English settlers, but not to natives, says Horton, an archaeology professor at the UK's Royal Agricultural University. 'The hammerscale shows that English settlers lived among the Croatoans on Hatteras and were ultimately absorbed into their community,' Horton told the Daily Mail. 'Once and for all, this smoking gun evidence answers any questions about the supposed mystery of the lost colony.' The story of the Lost Colony English Gov. John White led a group of 118 men, women and children to Roanoke Island, England's first outpost in North America, and arrived in July 1587 - a 1585 attempt to settle there had failed. Both voyages were financed by Raleigh, the Elizabethan statesman and explorer. The colonists had it tough, but in August 1587 they welcomed Virginia Dare, the first English baby born in the New World These flecks of oxidized metal, known as hammerscale, are the 'smoking gun' evidence of what happened to the Roanoke settlers, says Horton The hammerscale shows Roanoke colonists ended up on Hatteras Island and set up a forge as they lived among the native Croatoan people, says Horton The newcomers struggled to source food and fought with local natives, according to accounts from White and others. Still, in August, they celebrated the birth of White's granddaughter, Virginia Dare, named after the 'Virgin Queen' Elizabeth. White returned to England soon after Dare's birth to get much-needed supplies. This Tudor Rose is among the finds on Hatteras Island His colonists were directed to maintain the outpost, source food and materials and find a better settlement site inland. If they vacated Roanoke, they were instructed to carve their destination into the trees. White's resupply mission was delayed by the turmoil of the Spanish Armada's attack on England - he didn't make it back to Roanoke until August 1590, when he found an empty camp and the 'Croatoan' carving. There were no signs of a struggle, according to White's writings. The buildings and fortifications had been dismantled, suggesting the settlers left on their own steam. White tried to meet them on Hatteras Island, but a storm forced him to reroute to England. He never reconnected with the Dares or other members of the so-called 'lost colony.' Tales of the settlers' fate were soon shared among New World adventurers and Elizabethan courtiers. Among them were reports that a local tribal chief told colonizer John Smith, of the 1607 Jamestown settlement, that his native warriors had attacked and killed most of the Roanoke colonists. The lore of Roanoke became popular in the 19th Century, when this wood engraving was produced John White's 1585 map of the East Coast showed the Roanoak and Croatoan islands, and a potential defensive settlement site inland The colonists were frequently at odds with the indigenous tribes who lived nearby The Roanoke colonists settled beside the native tribe of Pocahontas Others claimed the Roanoke colonists had ended up captives of another tribe. Another theory says they sailed up the Albemarle Sound and settled inland, in modern-day Bertie County. A metal piece of chest found on Hatteras A map produced by White in 1585 bears a faint outline of a fort in that area. Archaeologists at the First Colony Foundation have found pottery and weapons there that they've linked to the Roanoke colonists, but these items have been hard to conclusively date. Storytellers since the 1830s have latched on to the mystery, spinning yarns about Dare, turning her into a romantic symbol of European purity who, in one telling, was the mother of Pocahontas. In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt even sat among the audience of a new open air play, The Lost Colony, which is still performed on Roanoke Island. The legend has made its way into everything from Stephen King lore to American Horror Story and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Cracking the case For their research, myth-busters Dawson and Horton went back to the 'Croatoan' etching as a starting point. They've been digging near Buxton on the Croatoan Hatteras Island for more than a decade. The pair discovered weapons, a metal Tudor Rose emblem of English royalty and a European coin-like token - which all point to the presence of English settlers. The findings are on display at Dawson's Lost Colony Museum in Buxton. The Roanoke settlement has been recreated at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site in North Carolina This plaque in Plymouth, Devon, in the UK, marks the departure of the Roanoke colonists Archaeologists have found pottery, weapons, and other traces of English settlers on Roanoke Island and elsewhere The Roanoke missions were financed by Sir Walter Raleigh, the Elizabethan explorer and courtier Archaeologists Mark Horton (left) and Scott Dawson (right) have been working on Hatteras for more than a decade Though less eye-catching, the archaeologists say their bucket-loads of hammer scale are more revealing as coins and sword hilts could have got to Hatteras through trade or a passing settler. A US half-dollar coin from 1937 showing Virginia Dare and her mom, Eleanor The remnants of a forge shows that colonists were holed up there for some time, perhaps as they awaited a rescue party that never arrived. They also point to historic accounts from the English explorer John Lawson, who visited Hatteras in the early 1700s. Lawson said he encountered islanders with gray eyes who wore English clothes and spoke of their white ancestors and Christianity. Dawson concludes that members of the Roanoke colony struggled with food shortages and hostile natives, which had been recurring problems for the settlers. At some point between 1587 and '90, he says they left to join the Croatoans, with whom they had the best relations. 'It's the end of the mystery,' says Dawson, a Hatteras native and president of the Croatoan Archaeological Society. 'The lost colony narrative was a marketing campaign. The primary sources are clear, and now we have empirical evidence to prove it. 'But, alas,' he adds, 'it's hard to kill a myth.'
