By Tim Binnall
The centuries-old mystery surrounding the infamous lost colony of Roanoke may have finally been solved at last. The curious case from 1590 centers around a British settlement on the coast of what is now North Carolina that was inexplicably abandoned by its residents, who had seemingly vanished into thin air. Historians have long wondered why the colonists left their homes and where exactly they may have gone.
Now a newly published book which serves as the culmination of an eleven-year-long investigation into the case appears to have answered these questions. "They were never lost," author Scott Dawson told the Virginian Pilot, "it was made up. The mystery is over." Drawing upon the work of archaeologists, historians, and other experts, he argues that the supply-starved colonists had, in fact, left the settlement and went to live with a nearby tribe of Native Americans known as the Croatoan.
Dawson's conclusion is based in large part on archaeological digs on Hatteras Island, where the Croatoan lived, which found both British and Native American artifacts in the same location, indicating that the two groups of people had formed a community together. Arguing that the unique origin of the group was essentially lost to the sands of time, the author notes that an explorer who subsequently discovered people living on the island over a century later marveled that some of them possessed blue eyes and claimed that their ancestors read from books.
As to one of the more perplexing clues from the case, the word 'croatoan' which was etched in a tree at the abandoned colony, the author argued that this was likely meant to serve as a message left behind by the former residents for when their British compatriots came back to the region following a years-long trip back to England for supplies. To that end, Dawson pointed to an account from one of the returning settlers who discovered the writing and acknowledged that it was an indication that the colonists had left with the Native Americans.