Clues hiding in the details of a year-old map could solve the mystery of the lost colony of Roanoke that scholars have spent hundreds of years searching for. In , a group of colonists arrived at an island between North Carolina and the Outer Banks to establish the first permanent English settlement. But three years later, the more than colonists and all traces of their settlement vanished.
It depicts parts of the North Carolina shoreline running from the north-eastern community of Currituck down to the midpoint of the coast. A close inspection of the map revealed a blank spot. It appeared that someone had covered up a small section, but never drew a correction over it.
That blank spot corresponds to a location near current-day Bertie County, on the western end of Albemarle Sound. This is less than miles from where English witnesses last saw the colonists of Roanoke. It also happens to match the location of a site called 31BR, where archaeologist Nicholas Luccketti of the James River Institute for Archaeology discovered pieces of English ceramic artifacts in This raised an interesting question: Could this be the location that the Roanoke settlers fled to from their island colony?
A close inspection of John White's map, 'La Virginea Pars,' revealed two faint outlines that appeared to be repairs: small pieces of paper had been used to cover an error. One of the repairs was left totally blank, with no correction drawn over the amendment.
British Museum experts analyzed the map's blank repair using a light box, revealing the symbol for a fort underneath. Experts now believe the Roanoke colonists moved to this site from their original location on the island.
