Archaeologists at Roanoke Island, North Carolina have just found 400-year-old artifacts believed to be from the mysterious Lost Colony, the first English settlement in North America.

On July 22, 1587, following in the footsteps of a group of colonists who’d settled there a few years prior, the English arrived at Roanoke. However, all they found from that first group was a skeleton, and within about three years, they themselves would be gone.

When an English mission to resupply the Roanoke Colony made landfall on August 18, 1590, no settlers were found, only the letters “CRO” carved into a tree and the word “Croatan” carved into a fence post nearby.

However, despite sometimes wild theorizing about what strange, tragic fate befell the colonists, the answer is likely quite simple: They went to live with the Croatan Native Americans on nearby Hatteras Island.

In fact, with a number of people on the Island subsequently showing a mixed English/Native America phenotype and speaking a likewise dialect, it’s all but certain that the Roanoke colonists and the Croatan simply began living as one.

…And while the ultimate mystery of the Lost Colony may actually be no mystery at all, finds like Deetz’s will help reconstruct this crucial moment in American history.

400-Year-Old Artifacts Uncovered At First English Settlement In The New World – All That Is Interesting

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