Archaeologists may have finally solved the mystery of Roanokes Lost Colony

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 the Royal Agricultural University in England, spoke with Fox News Digital about his findings.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 that the colonists assimilated into Croatoan society, thanks to a trash heap. “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 Isla...