Researchers believe they may have finally solved the mystery behind the disappearance of the infamous Lost Colony of the 16th century following a new discovery.
The so-called Lost Colony refers to 118 English settlers who vanished from Roanoke Island in North Carolina sometime after they set up in 1587.
The only trace of the settlers was a carving of the word ‘Croatoan’ in a palisade, which many believed referred to Croatoan Island, or modern–day Hatteras Island.
For centuries historians have speculated on whether the group evert made it to Croatoan as they seemed to suggest.
Now, researchers believe they did actually migrate there and assimilated with the Native Americans after finding iron filings known as hammerscale in a trash heap on Hatteras Island, Fox News Digital reports.
Hammerscale are flaky bits that contains iron forging byproducts, which the Native Americans would not have had yet, but English colonists would have been well–versed in.
‘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,’ Mark Horton, an archaeology professor at Royal Agricultural University in England, told Fox News Digital.
‘We’re looking at the middens – that’s the rubbish heaps – of the Native Americans living on Croatoan Island, because we deduced that they would have very rapidly been assimilated into the Native American population.’
The hammerscale discovery led researchers to conclude that the Englishmen ‘must have been working’ with the Native American community.
The colony’s disappearance was uncovered by Governor John White on his return to the island from England in 1590.
White had sailed back to his homeland in August 1587 to collect more supplies and settlers but was delayed by the Spanish Armada.
When he arrived back at Roanoke found the original settlers, including his daughters, had vanished from the island.
A plan had been preestablished that if the settlers were to leave the island, they would carve their location into a tree so he would know where they were.
But only remnant of human life left on the island was a carving of the word ‘Croatoan’ in a palisade, which many believed referred to Croatoan Island, or modern–day Hatteras Island.
White attempted to sail to the other island, but a storm disrupted him and forced him to reroute back to England with no news of the settlers.
Their disappearance left centuries of people wondering if the colonists were killed or if they had immigrated to a new home.
This changed with the discovery of the hammerscale, which was accurately dated due to its position in the soil, buried in layers researchers say would have come from that century.
The team also found guns, nautical fittings, small cannonballs, and more, they told Fox News Digital.
Wine glasses and beads were also discovered, which helped build a picture of what the settlers’ lives were on the island.
Researchers believe the settlers’ family lived on the island until the 18th Century.
Another reason they believe the English settlers assimilated with the Native Americans was historical evidence from the 1700s that described ‘people with blue or gray eyes’ Horton said.
He said these individuals, ‘could remember people who used to be able to read from books,’.
‘Also, they said there was this ghost ship that was sent out by a man called Raleigh,’ Horton added.
The name is most likely a reference to Sir Walter Raleigh, an English statesman who played a key role in colonization.
He organized and funded two attempts at settlement on Roanoke Island.
The first was a military outpost evacuated in 1586, before the arrival of the Lost Colony two years later.
Following the colony’s failure, White all but disappeared from the historical record.
He is believed to have died in around 1606, one year before England established its first successful colony in Jamestown, Virginia.