Lost Roanoke Colony Mystery Solved? Hammerscale Reveals a Surprising Truth
2025-06-11
A team led by British archaeologist Mark Horton has potentially solved the centuries-old mystery of the Lost Roanoke Colony. The discovery of hammerscale—tiny flakes of iron from forging—on Hatteras Island provides definitive proof of 16th-century English ironworking technology, absent among Native Americans at the time. This suggests the colonists assimilated into the Croatoan community rather than perishing. While the mystery may persist in some form, this archaeological evidence offers a compelling explanation for the colonists' fate.