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What is that right there?

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I mean this just adds a whole new dimension to our understanding of these early settlers.

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You make a very compelling case, so how do you prove it?

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You dig them up.

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I can't wait man, let's do it.

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Look out!

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When we think of Thanksgiving, we think of pilgrims, turkey, and doorbuster deals on flat panel TVs.

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But I've always been interested in a darker, earlier chapter of the American story.

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The history books tell us that in 1607, Jamestown, Virginia became the first permanent English colony in the now United States.

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There's just one problem. That may not be true.

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You see, long before the Jamestown settlers ever laid eyes on the New World,

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an Englishman named John White led 118 men, women, and children across the Atlantic to Roanoke Island in 1587.

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White soon sailed back to England for much needed supplies,

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but when he returned, he found the settlement eerily abandoned, with no sign of the colonists dead or alive.

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The only clue to their fate?

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A single word, croatoan, carved onto a post.

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So what happened to these early pioneers?

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Armed with new evidence, three different groups of explorers are racing to solve this 400 year old mystery.

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So I'm headed to North Carolina, where I'll join these teams to discover the fate of the lost colony of Roanoke,

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and the truth behind America's first mystery.

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My name is Josh Gates.

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I'm a bucket bat with a degree in archaeology and a passion for exploration.

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I have a tendency to end up in some very strange situations.

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This is horrible. This is officially horrible.

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My travels have taken me to the ends of the earth as I investigate the greatest legends in history.

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We're gonna try, let's go.

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This is Expedition Unknown.

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Okay, so to really understand the story of the lost colony requires the tiniest bit of a history lesson.

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Don't change the channel. This will be painless. This will be brief.

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We'll even use some fancy animated maps. Do take notes though, there's going to be a quiz after.

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Alright, deep breath, here we go.

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On March 25, 1584, Queen Elizabeth I grants a charter to Sir Walter Raleigh,

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authorizing him to set up a permanent English colony in the New World.

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Under the leadership of Governor John White, 118 settlers leave their homes to establish themselves on a strange and unfamiliar continent.

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The journey takes them from England, nearly 4,000 miles across the churning Atlantic Ocean,

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to Roanoke Island in the outer banks of what's now North Carolina.

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They spot the island on July 22, 1587 and come ashore to start their new lives,

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where they get to work, planting and building a village in the New World.

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During their first month in their new home,

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Governor White's daughter Eleanor Dare gives birth.

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Her daughter, Virginia Dare, becomes the first English child born in North America.

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The celebration doesn't last long.

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Life in the village is demanding and the settlers begin running short on supplies.

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They ask Governor White to return to England for life-saving help.

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He leaves at the end of August, not knowing that this will be the last time he will ever lay eyes on any of the colonists.

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See? That one's so bad. Alright, I'll let the show.

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I too arrive at the outer banks and cross over to the island of Roanoke.

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And while the colonists may have vanished, they're still on everyone's minds.

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My first stop on the island is the Fort Raleigh Visitors Center.

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You know, walking through this museum, the mystery of the Roanoke colony really comes into light.

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After John White left the colony in 1587, other than these scant remains, they seem to have completely vanished.

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Nobody knows the exact location of the colony, though the few eerie artifacts that have been recovered

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suggest that it was near this very spot.

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So items like this are fascinating.

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These, these are the remains of the Roanoke colony.

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These objects found at Roanoke were obviously brought here by the colonists.

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These are not things that the natives had, but the problem is this is about all we've got.

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A few tokens, some beads, remnants of tools.

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There's no structures, no bodies, no clear evidence of what happened to the colonists.

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I go behind the Fort to see the remains of the Roanoke colony.

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I go behind the Fort to meet an expert on the Roanoke mystery in the elaborate Elizabethan Gardens.

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Named for Queen Elizabeth I, who chartered the colony.

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Here, Tom Shields is going to help me navigate the many possible endings to the Roanoke story.

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In terms of the theories about the fate of the lost colonists, what do you think are the most reasonable?

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There's two basic groups.

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They either died probably here, or they moved inland and assimilated or lived on their own in some way or another.

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Okay, so they either got killed or they left?

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Right.

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Okay, so in the, they got killed camp, what are the likely ways in which that could have happened?

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One is just disease.

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Almost every colony has lots of people dying early on.

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Another possibility is starvation.

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They arrive here in August, they're English planters.

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They don't know they could probably get in one more good crop at this point in the year.

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Drought is one of those things that we look at.

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So it could be lack of water.

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It could be lack of water.

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Then there's also attack by Native Americans.

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Two earlier scouting out.

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Two earlier scouting out.

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Two earlier scouting out.

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Two earlier scouting expeditions by the English established relations with the natives that were uneven at best.

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Some tribes along the coast were peaceful and cooperative.

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But the English made enemies of other groups.

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So all sorts of possibilities.

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Which one?

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We don't know.

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The more optimistic possibility is that we can't find the colony because it moved.

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So where would they have gone?

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The basis for a lot of the places people want to look for that is based on what John White said they intended to do.

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Okay.

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According to John White's journal, if the colonists had to relocate in his absence, they were to move the settlement 50 miles into the main,

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which most believe means into the mainland.

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They were also told to carve their destination into a post if they left.

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And White did find the word croat Owen inscribed into a wooden fence.

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But whether this was meant for him or what it means about the colony's location is a mystery.

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So there's somebody who I think you might want to meet who can tell you more about the colony from an English perspective, from her own personal point of view.

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Okay, sure.

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Yeah, happy to meet him.

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Oh my God.

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Holy moly.

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Wow.

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Hello.

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Your Highness.

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Good sir.

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Very nice to meet you.

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Lovely to meet you as well.

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I'm actually here doing a story on your Roanoke colony.

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The Roanoke colony.

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I haven't heard from them in a while.

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I don't want to be, you know, too forward here, especially in front of royalty, but what the hell is going on here?

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Who are you?

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I'm Emily.

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You're Emily.

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I play Queen Elizabeth I here on Roanoke Island in the Lost Colony play.

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In the play?

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Yeah.

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I thought I was having an acid trip.

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Turns out the queen is a member of the Lost Colony troop that has been reenacting their version of the Roanoke story since 1937.

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And it's still going strong.

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Still going strong.

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So we would like to invite you to be a part of the Lost Colony tonight.

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Oh wow.

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Okay.

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When you say be a part of.

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We have a role for you.

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We're with a costume.

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Am I allowed to say no to the Queen of England?

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You're absolutely not.

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I would have your head.

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Well then I guess I have to do it.

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I'm rushed over to the theater where about 20 minutes before the curtain is scheduled to go up, I'm hastily dropped into the hands of associate producer Lance Culpe.

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We need to get you into costume and fitting.

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Okay.

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We're going to measure you and see what costumes we can get you into today.

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Not many of them I'm guessing.

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He'll take a deep breath for me.

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Okay.

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Don't look so shocked.

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Did you see that?

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I was like she looked like she'd never seen anyone this size.

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I'm going to get around your way.

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I measured for a costume that uses roughly three acres of fabric.

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Hey Josh you look great.

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Thank you.

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Ready for makeup?

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Yes.

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Let's go.

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At some point will I be seeing a script?

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And quickly walk past the last of the Mohicans before heading to makeup.

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I feel like it's too much.

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Is it too much?

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Yeah you could probably tone it down a bit.

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Okay.

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Five minutes before showtime someone finally hands me a script.

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And guess what?

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I'm an Englishman.

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Typecasting.

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This play, written by Paul Green nearly 80 years ago, is actually the longest running outdoor drama in America.

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I'm honored to be a part of it since I'm fascinated by the story of the colonists.

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But also totally terrified since I literally don't know any of my lines.

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And now Paul Green's the most common.

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Is it?

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It is.

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Let's go.

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And we're off and running.

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From the wings I get a glimpse of the show.

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An ambitious production that recounts the colonists' brave journey to Roanoke.

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The playwright speculates that the settlers were ultimately done in by Native American attacks.

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As for me, I'm about to meet my own fate on stage in about two minutes.

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On Roanoke Island in North Carolina, I've been invited to take the stage with the cast of The Lost Colony Play.

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The mysterious story of the English settlers who vanished off the face of the earth here 400 years ago.

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Speaking of vanishing, I just got handed the script and I'm thinking about bolting for the exits.

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And now, The Lost Colony.

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I'm playing the role of a man warning the ill-fated colonists not to travel to the New World.

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What the heck happened to you?

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Neighbors! Neighbors!

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I say it's gospel!

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Every living word!

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Eleven months! Eleven months I was there in that cursed land and I would not go back for all the jewels of Spain!

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I walk off stage to thunderous applause. In my head anyway.

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Alas, there was one problem with my performance though. My cup was empty.

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Now I need a real drink.

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The next morning I feel a real sense of purpose. Having spent last night walking a mile in the world of The Lost Colony.

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Now, it's time to figure out what really happened.

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While a lot of people are searching for the physical location of The Lost Colony, other people are trying to figure out the mystery in different ways.

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One of those people is a guy named Charles Ewan who is a professor of anthropology.

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And he's got a novel approach that he thinks might just crack the case.

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It's about a hundred degrees out right now, which seems appropriate.

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Since one of the newest theories about The Lost Colony is that it wilted in the face of a massive drought.

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To prove the colonists couldn't take the heat, the professors asked me to meet him in the swamp, along with dendrochronologist Erika Wise.

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Hiya. Hey Charles.

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Hey Josh.

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Nice to meet you. How are you?

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Hi. Nice to meet you.

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Pleasure. So what are we doing out here? What's the plan of attack?

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One of the things I'm interested in is finding out what happened to those folks.

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And if we're going to understand what happens to them, we really got to understand their environment.

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Unfortunately, there's no one around today from the late 16th century, so how do we do that?

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But there are still living witnesses to the time period back then, and those are some of the trees.

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Trees? So we actually have trees here in North Carolina that were alive when the colonists were here.

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Yeah, North Carolina has some of the oldest trees in the east, and some of them definitely date back to that era.

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And how do you get those trees to talk?

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We just have to pull a little core out of them and look at their rings, because they're recording that information right in their tree growth.

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And I take it that's what this beauty's for.

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Indeed. It'll get us where we need to go.

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Okay, let's do it. Come on.

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Okay, let's go.

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We get settled into the airboat and head out into the swamp, in search of a tree old enough to spill the secrets of the lost colony.

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Okay, Cap, you ready?

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Ready if you are.

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All right, bunch of chewing.

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We speed through the narrow waterways, eyeing the older, larger trees along the banks, but finding a 400-year-old tree means going deep into the wilderness.

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All right, Erica, it's feeling bolder in here.

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Is that a fair assessment of the least feeling of smoke here?

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The trees are getting a little bigger back here, because that's just very back here.

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We scan the waterline, but for the life of us, we can't see a tree for the forest.

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That is, until Professor Ewing spots something.

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How about that one? That one's pretty good.

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Which one are you looking at?

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Just off the quarter-mile there, sticking out of the water.

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Oh yeah, that's a big boy.

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Erica, what do you think about that?

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That's a beautiful tree. We've got to try that one.

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Now that we've identified the tree, we pull in and suit up with harnesses to get a sample from a higher point on the trunk.

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Boy, climbing a tree sure has changed since I was 10 years old.

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Once we're rigged up, we're going to go down the road.

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Once we're rigged up, the Professor and our boat captain hoist Erica into the canopy.

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Josh, you want to come up now?

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Want to or have to?

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You need to come up.

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Alright, I'm coming up.

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This tree is not going to core itself, so I clip in and start to make my way up to meet Erica.

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Okay, I am locked off and I am not looking down anymore.

235
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:07,000
Now we're up here. What do we do?

236
00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:11,000
We're just going to drill a little hole in this tree and see what it tells us.

237
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,000
Okay, got it.

238
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:22,000
Erica begins the process of getting a core sample, but the tough hide of the tree makes it difficult for one person to turn the boarder.

239
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:24,000
Josh, come here and give me your hand, okay?

240
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:29,000
Okay, let me just see if I can swing my way over to you and get on that ledge.

241
00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:31,000
Charles, don't drop me down there.

242
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:32,000
I got you.

243
00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:35,000
Okay.

244
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:36,000
Okay.

245
00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:37,000
Hi.

246
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:38,000
Hey.

247
00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:39,000
How are you?

248
00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:40,000
Good, how are you?

249
00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:41,000
I'm good.

250
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:43,000
Okay, here we go.

251
00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:47,000
Take the top, take the bottom, turn, turn.

252
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:56,000
I help Erica drill into the tree, but as we focus on getting a sample, I lose focus on my footing.

253
00:16:58,000 --> 00:16:59,000
Look out!

254
00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:09,000
I'm somewhere on the Roanoke River, dangling high in a tree with dendrochronologist Erica Wise.

255
00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:15,000
We're taking a core sample, which may be able to tell us if the lost colonists were done in by a brutal drought.

256
00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:22,000
While all of my elbow grease is being put into the drill, I accidentally lose track of my feet.

257
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:26,000
Look out!

258
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:28,000
Look out!

259
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:34,000
Charles, you got me down there?

260
00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:35,000
I got you.

261
00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:40,000
Once I get myself under control, Erica and I finish getting the core sample.

262
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:43,000
Okay, Charles, I need to pass you this core.

263
00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:47,000
With our sample in safe hands, it's time to come out of the trees.

264
00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:49,000
Charles, get me out of here.

265
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:51,000
Alright, get me down slowly.

266
00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:52,000
Okay.

267
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:56,000
Okay.

268
00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:58,000
Thanks, buddy.

269
00:17:58,000 --> 00:17:59,000
That was so bad.

270
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:00,000
Easy to say, Charles, we were down here.

271
00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:02,000
I was doing the heavy lifting.

272
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:03,000
That's true.

273
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:10,000
Erica follows suit, and once we're all back in the boat, she carefully extracts the core from the boring mechanism.

274
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:11,000
Alright, Mom, I'm gonna truth, here we go.

275
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:13,000
Okay, let's see what we've got.

276
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:18,000
The core is a cylindrical cross-section of the tree, revealing secrets from the past.

277
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:22,000
Do we see evidence on here of times when water is scarcer?

278
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:23,000
Can that be corroborated here?

279
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:32,000
Well, so this tree definitely shows dry periods, wet periods over the centuries, so we just have to figure out exactly when those fell.

280
00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:38,000
In examining the core, the more narrow the ring is, the drier the year in which it formed.

281
00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:47,000
In this case, we see there is an extended dry period nearly 450 years ago, right around when the colonists arrived at Roanoke.

282
00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:56,000
This is really exciting, these data here, in that it really gives us a better picture of what a struggle it was for those folks here.

283
00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:01,000
Do you think that it's possible that the ending of the colonists could be something as elementary as needing water?

284
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:03,000
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

285
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:06,000
They were here with minimal supplies.

286
00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:08,000
In an environment they'd never experienced.

287
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:16,000
If this does bear out that we've got a drought at that period, it would have been more surprising for John White to have found them when he got back.

288
00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:23,000
I mean, this just adds a whole new dimension to our understanding of these early settlers.

289
00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:34,000
This is a significant piece of evidence that the colonists may have succumbed to a horrendous fate, finding the new world only to starve to death on her shores.

290
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:42,000
But the Roanoke bunch were hardy and resourceful, and there's still no direct evidence that a lack of water ultimately did them in.

291
00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:51,000
I'm back on the road to meet with a group of researchers on the mainland of North Carolina who have a totally different theory.

292
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:57,000
They don't believe drought killed the colonists. In fact, they don't believe they were killed at all.

293
00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:06,000
One of the most debated clues in the Roanoke mystery comes from the journal of John White, who returns to England for supplies after the colony is established.

294
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:13,000
He and the settlers agree that they should move 50 miles into the main if they need to abandon the colony while he's gone.

295
00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:16,000
But what and where does he mean?

296
00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:23,000
When it comes to physical, tangible evidence that links us to the lost colony, there's not a lot out there.

297
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:32,000
One of the most interesting potential clues is a map that was actually hand drawn by John White himself in 1585, and it depicts what is now the coast of North Carolina.

298
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:45,000
White created one of the first British maps of the Roanoke area. The map has been preserved in the British Museum in London, but just recently, testing revealed startling new clues on the document.

299
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:53,000
An archaeological team called the First Colony Foundation is using this evidence to piece together the real location of the lost colonists.

300
00:20:54,000 --> 00:21:01,000
On the remote edge of a forest on the Roanoke River, I meet First Colony archaeologist Eric Dietz.

301
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:03,000
Are you Eric?

302
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:04,000
Yeah.

303
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:06,000
Josh, how are you? Nice to meet you, man.

304
00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:07,000
Nice to meet you.

305
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,000
Yeah, it's a pleasure. So listen, this is not an easy place to find.

306
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:11,000
Yeah, it's a little off the beaten path.

307
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:13,000
Why, why, why way out here?

308
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:17,000
There's a lot of places that are 50 miles into the main from Roanoke Island.

309
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:18,000
Right.

310
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:23,000
At this particular spot, we found something very interesting on the John White map that's in the British archives.

311
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:24,000
Really?

312
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:25,000
And I can show that to you if you want.

313
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:26,000
Yeah, for sure.

314
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:31,000
Okay, so here's a really good quality copy of John White's map.

315
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:32,000
Uh-huh.

316
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,000
Here's Roanoke Island. Do you notice anything odd?

317
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:35,000
On the map?

318
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:36,000
Yes, on the map.

319
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:40,000
Um, this? This is what?

320
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:45,000
That's a patch of some sort where they've either revised the map or there was a tear or something like that.

321
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,000
If you look up here, there's another one. Smaller.

322
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:48,000
There's another one right there.

323
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:51,000
Right in here, which is where we are.

324
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:52,000
And that's a patch also.

325
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:53,000
Yes, it is.

326
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:54,000
Wow.

327
00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:55,000
So what's under that?

328
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:56,000
That's a great question and that's what we wanted to know.

329
00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:00,000
So the maps in the British Museum, so were they able to look at it?

330
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:05,000
Well, they used the light box with backlighting and they used ultraviolet light and they were able to see what was under the patch.

331
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:06,000
And was something under it?

332
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,000
Oh, something spectacular.

333
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:09,000
What they find?

334
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:12,000
Oh my God, look at that.

335
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:16,000
There's a symbol hidden under the patch.

336
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:17,000
There certainly is.

337
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:19,000
That's astounding.

338
00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:20,000
And we're in this spot.

339
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:21,000
Yes, we are.

340
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:22,000
And so what's the symbol?

341
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:23,000
Symbols of Ford.

342
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:24,000
You're sure?

343
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:25,000
Yes, no doubt.

344
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:26,000
It represents a Ford.

345
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:28,000
This is a bombshell find.

346
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:32,000
This symbol was a popular marker for English forts.

347
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:39,000
In fact, we know from historical illustrations that many early colonial forts took on this star-like shape.

348
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:41,000
And so why do you think that was covered?

349
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:43,000
Could be for secrecy.

350
00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:47,000
You may not be wanting to send a map back to England that would be captured that would show where a fortification was.

351
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:48,000
Right.

352
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:51,000
It could be that it was altered because the fort was never built.

353
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:54,000
Okay, but obviously a hugely intriguing place to look.

354
00:22:54,000 --> 00:23:02,000
Yeah, it definitely proves that this was a place of interest to the colonists at the time that John White was here because he placed this for whatever reason on the map.

355
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:04,000
Okay, so what's the plan now?

356
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:08,000
Today, we're going to do some really high tech testing to peel away the vegetation.

357
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:10,000
And maybe see what that symbol is supposed to represent.

358
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:11,000
Well, hopefully.

359
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:12,000
All right.

360
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,000
I can't wait, man. Let's do it. Come on.

361
00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:22,000
The 60-acre piece of land under the patch is known as Site X, both because of the shape of the symbol and because Site X sounds really cool.

362
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:23,000
Clayhore and Estange.

363
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:29,000
Eric introduces me to the rest of his team and even shows me some artifacts that have already been excavated.

364
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,000
This is lead-glazed earthenware.

365
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:32,000
All right.

366
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:33,000
You can tell the really distinctive yellow glaze.

367
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:39,000
They compare small fragments like this that they found at Site X with pottery discovered at Roanoke.

368
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:44,000
Here we have a basin, and this is an archaeological example, and it dates to about 1677 to 1610.

369
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:47,000
If you look at the glazing, the coloring, I mean, they're almost identical.

370
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:50,000
And so items like this were found on Roanoke.

371
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:51,000
Yes.

372
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:52,000
Incredible.

373
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:55,000
But what they're really searching for is evidence of a structure.

374
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:59,000
The real question is whether or not there's a fork here.

375
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:02,000
To find out, they're using a high-tech search tool.

376
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:07,000
This is crazy. What is this beast?

377
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:13,000
Well, it's a big copter that's going to carry some lidar for us so we can do some great imaging of this area.

378
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,000
I've been lucky enough to have seen lidar in action before.

379
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:25,000
It works by firing millions of laser pulses from the air to reveal evidence of human construction on the ground.

380
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:31,000
Eric's team from Lidar USA has rigged up a portable laser unit to a powerful drone.

381
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:34,000
So in terms of today, what's the plan? What are we scanning?

382
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:36,000
Well, Psydax is over in this direction here.

383
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:40,000
And what we're going to have these guys do is give us a better idea of the topography.

384
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:43,000
Maybe it opens up new areas for us to go look and test.

385
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:45,000
How big an area are we talking about scanning here?

386
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,000
We're going to do about 40 to 50 acres today.

387
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:49,000
It'll take about 15 minutes to cover that area.

388
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:50,000
Only 15 minutes?

389
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:53,000
15 minutes, and we'll get it like twice over in that time.

390
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:54,000
That's insane.

391
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:55,000
Oh, man.

392
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:56,000
The brave new world.

393
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:59,000
And should we all be standing right here when it takes off?

394
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:00,000
No.

395
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,000
Okay, well, let's move to wherever we need to go.

396
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:10,000
Eric and I take a step back while the Lidar crew preps their custom drone for take off.

397
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:14,000
Once the lasers are up and running, it's time to see what this baby can do.

398
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:27,000
He's up.

399
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:43,000
I'm 50 miles from Roanoke Island at a location referred to as Psydax.

400
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:44,000
So it's off.

401
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:45,000
It's off.

402
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:50,000
New examination of a colonial era map has revealed a hidden symbol of a fort.

403
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:56,000
Now, the first colony foundation has just sent up a large drone armed with a high-tech laser

404
00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:02,000
to see if the lost colony of Roanoke could have survived by relocating here in 1587.

405
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:05,000
You see, it's just a little bit above the trees.

406
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:11,000
The lower you are, the better the resolution is and more data points you get.

407
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:29,000
Just a short 20 minutes later, the drone takes its final flight pass before Jean brings it in for a landing.

408
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:30,000
It's incredible.

409
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,000
All right, now let's see if she found anything.

410
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:40,000
We remove the drive from the drone, and the data is ingested into a laptop where advanced software renders

411
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,000
a multi-layered graphic of the scanned area.

412
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:44,000
But look at that.

413
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:46,000
It's completely three-dimensional.

414
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:47,000
How crazy is that?

415
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:53,000
The program accomplishes in minutes what would have once taken archaeologists months to complete.

416
00:26:53,000 --> 00:27:00,000
The software can even strip away the foliage layer by layer to reveal the ground beneath the trees.

417
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,000
So let's take a look around here and see what we see.

418
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,000
What are some of the things that we're looking for here?

419
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:06,000
What are some of the things that the lidar could reveal?

420
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:12,000
Any linear features that show up that run counter to the natural topography?

421
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:13,000
Straight lines?

422
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:14,000
Yeah, straight lines.

423
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:18,000
Any sort of depressions or mounds that might run on a regular spacing?

424
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:19,000
Okay.

425
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,000
Do you not see a giant star-shaped fort?

426
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:24,000
Can we see any evidence of where you were digging before?

427
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:28,000
Possibly some of these little bumps are where the trenches were filled back in.

428
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:29,000
Okay.

429
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:30,000
Yeah.

430
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:32,000
What is that right there?

431
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:33,000
Good question.

432
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:34,000
Oh, wow.

433
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:35,000
Okay.

434
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,000
I really like this landform right here.

435
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:38,000
Uh-huh.

436
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:42,000
What's nice is with the lidar you can see the true prominence of that little ridge that sticks out here.

437
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:44,000
Is that natural?

438
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,000
No, you don't really see right angles in nature.

439
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,000
That'd be a great strategic spot for a fort.

440
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:50,000
Promising?

441
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:52,000
It's already something important.

442
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:54,000
We just need to dig more to find out what it is.

443
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:57,000
And in the end all this fancy equipment is nice but we do like to get dirty sometimes.

444
00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:58,000
Still gotta go dig holes, right?

445
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,000
So now you get your high-tech model and now more digging.

446
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:02,000
Yeah, I am.

447
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:03,000
That's the fun part.

448
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:09,000
To an archaeologist finding a shape like this hidden beneath centuries of vegetation is like seeing the bat signal.

449
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:16,000
This is very cool stuff and it very well may lead them to more definitive evidence of a human presence here.

450
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:19,000
However, there are also reasons to be cautious.

451
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:27,000
For one thing the lidar didn't show any signs of post holes or other constructions which would have been necessary to house 118 people.

452
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:32,000
And if they're not here at Site X, where else could they have gone?

453
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:42,000
Some believe the probable landing spot was an island known to John White and the Lost Colonists as Croatoan and to us today as Hatteras.

454
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:52,000
I meet with local historian Scott Dawson from the Croatoan Archaeological Society who says he knows exactly where the Lost Colonists disappeared to.

455
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:53,000
Scott?

456
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:54,000
Yeah, Scott Dawson.

457
00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:55,000
Josh, nice to meet you man.

458
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:56,000
Nice to meet you, Josh.

459
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:58,000
Thanks so much for taking the time. I appreciate it.

460
00:28:58,000 --> 00:28:59,000
Oh, thanks for coming down.

461
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:02,000
So I take it you have a pretty strong theory about what happened to these folks.

462
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:07,000
I do. So basically I feel like they went where they literally wrote down they went.

463
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:08,000
Croatoan.

464
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:09,000
Just Croatoan.

465
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:16,000
When John White finally returned to Roanoke Island in 1590 he found the colony had all but disappeared.

466
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:21,000
There were no signs of attack but the colonists themselves may have left behind a clue.

467
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:25,000
White discovered a carving along the fence that read Croatoan.

468
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:30,000
On a nearby tree he found another carving, Crow C-R-O.

469
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,000
I mean that certainly is the obvious answer, right?

470
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:38,000
That's exactly right. They literally carved it out in capital letters. That's pretty hard to get around.

471
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:49,000
Unlike other tribes in the area with which the colonists had hostile relationships, the Croatoan tribe had helped the colonists after they arrived and proved to be friendly trading partners.

472
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:54,000
And they had a relationship with the Croatoan tribe for years. They got along great with them.

473
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:56,000
I see so it was sort of an alliance.

474
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:57,000
Yes.

475
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:00,000
You make a very compelling case. So how do you prove it?

476
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,000
You dig them up.

477
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:07,000
To hear Scott tell it it seems like the obvious solution. But that doesn't mean it's correct.

478
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:08,000
Do this.

479
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:15,000
The Croatoan Archaeological Society has an active dig site where Scott believes they're on the verge of a major discovery.

480
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:22,000
The dig is on the other side of Roanoke Sound which gives Scott a chance to prove that he's not just a stuffy historian.

481
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:24,000
Right there he's wrangled some jet skis.

482
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:34,000
Let's go.

483
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,000
Let's see what you got.

484
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:57,000
I'm not sure yet if Scott can really prove where the Lost Colony ended up.

485
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:03,000
But I am sure of one thing. If he's right, I'm about to be the first person to jet ski into the history books.

486
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:21,000
Historian Scott Dawson is leading me to where he and a group of archaeologists have been working to solve the mystery of the Lost Roanoke Colonists of 1587.

487
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:25,000
We cross over Roanoke Sound to Hatteras Island.

488
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,000
400 years ago this was known as Croatoan.

489
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:35,000
Take that history boy.

490
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:44,000
We're ripping along at a speed that would have made the early settlers here green with envy until suddenly speed is a little hard to come by.

491
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:49,000
Oh Scott.

492
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:50,000
Yeah.

493
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:52,000
I got a slight problem here.

494
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:53,000
What's that?

495
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:57,000
I'm in a foot of water.

496
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:04,000
As it turns out, I'm not just standing on a sandbar. In the colonists time, this used to be the beach.

497
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:09,000
In fact, all you have to do is drop your hands into the water to find something historic.

498
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:11,000
Oh my god.

499
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:12,000
What is it?

500
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,000
This is Croatoan pottery.

501
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:15,000
This is pottery.

502
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:16,000
That's pottery.

503
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:18,000
It's shell grog.

504
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:20,000
Which just means there's shells mixed into it?

505
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:22,000
There's shells mixed into it that made the pots stronger.

506
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:24,000
This is from 18th century?

507
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,000
From the 18th to 16th century in that area.

508
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:30,000
Let's see if we can find more of it.

509
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:43,000
Aha.

510
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:46,000
Pottery.

511
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:47,000
Yes sir.

512
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:50,000
Okay, so you know that's really old Josh.

513
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:51,000
Like how old is this?

514
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,000
Like from about the year 500.

515
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:55,000
So you're telling me this is more than 1500 years old?

516
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:57,000
Yeah.

517
00:32:57,000 --> 00:32:58,000
That is crazy.

518
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:03,000
Finds like this have helped Scott and his team identify that the native Croatoans lived here.

519
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:06,000
After all, this was the island that was named for them.

520
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:08,000
But we're the lost colonists here too.

521
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,000
We've got Croatoan pottery here.

522
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:13,000
But how does that connect us to the lost colony?

523
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:20,000
The goal would be to find Elizabethan colonial material mixed in with Croatoan material.

524
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:21,000
Right.

525
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:25,000
Which is exactly what we're working on at our main site, which is a little bit inland.

526
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:26,000
Okay, great.

527
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:28,000
These shallow waters are federal property.

528
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:33,000
So we carefully leave the pottery where we found it and Scott shows me why we're really here.

529
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:38,000
He leads me inland where his colleagues have been working to excavate a major dig site.

530
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:40,000
Hi, how are you?

531
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:41,000
Hi.

532
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,000
Why do you guys get a full scale operation going in here?

533
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:51,000
Researchers from the University of Bristol and the Croatoan Archaeological Society have uncovered a large Croatoan village

534
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:53,000
yielding thousands of artifacts.

535
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:58,000
But how do you figure out if 118 English colonists were living here too?

536
00:33:58,000 --> 00:33:59,000
Simple.

537
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:00,000
You snoop around.

538
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:02,000
This is Charlie.

539
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,000
Hi Charlie, how are you doing?

540
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:05,000
I'm Josh.

541
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:06,000
Nice to meet you.

542
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:07,000
Nice to meet you.

543
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,000
So Charlie, walk me through what's going on down here.

544
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:13,000
Essentially when you live in a place, you leave rubbish behind.

545
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:14,000
That's what we're looking at.

546
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:15,000
Right.

547
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:17,000
You are routing around in Croatoan garbage.

548
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,000
Yes, pretty much.

549
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:24,000
We are going through their refuse, which to non-archaeologists is an extremely odd thing to do.

550
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:27,000
But for us, this is exactly what we want.

551
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,000
We want all of this disgusting dirt.

552
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:33,000
Because we're finding things like this.

553
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:34,000
What is it?

554
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,000
Massive fish vertebra.

555
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:40,000
So we know that they're eating that specific breed of fish.

556
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:45,000
They're using their materials that they have to gain the food that they need to survive.

557
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:47,000
I mean, you've got water.

558
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:49,000
You've got all the fish you could possibly want.

559
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:51,000
You've got deer living on the land.

560
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:55,000
And this pit itself shows that they're not just surviving.

561
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:57,000
They're eating really quite well.

562
00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:58,000
Yeah.

563
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:02,000
One man's garbage is another man's key to solving a 400-year-old mystery.

564
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:08,000
In this case, the fish bones seem to tell us that if the row-and-out colony was plagued by a drought,

565
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:11,000
the natives here didn't seem to have any trouble finding food.

566
00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:14,000
Another reason the colonists might have wanted to join forces.

567
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:20,000
So in terms of the lost colony, is it possible that they became fully integrated into this Croaton life?

568
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:22,000
It's absolutely possible.

569
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:25,000
In fact, the English were familiar with this tribe.

570
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:31,000
So there's a relationship here that had already existed prior to the lost colony.

571
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:36,000
In order to find even the smallest artifacts that could prove the colonists were here,

572
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:38,000
they've set up a sifting station.

573
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:39,000
Okay?

574
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:40,000
Now what do I do with this?

575
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:41,000
You just dump this in there?

576
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:42,000
Alright, well I could do that.

577
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:43,000
Yeah.

578
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:44,000
It's an easy bit.

579
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:47,000
Buckets of dirt are emptied into the trough.

580
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:48,000
Alright.

581
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:52,000
Pushing through an increasingly fine series of screens.

582
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:57,000
Finally, a hose is used to distinguish the artifacts from the remaining dirt.

583
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:03,000
Okay.

584
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:04,000
Okay.

585
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:05,000
Okay.

586
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:06,000
Into the nitty gritty.

587
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:07,000
Nitty gritty.

588
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:09,000
Yeah, you kind of have to change up your eyes on this one,

589
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,000
because you're just looking for the tiniest little shape changes,

590
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:13,000
tiniest little color changes.

591
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:16,000
We have tiniest little teeth.

592
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:18,000
This is from a sheep's head.

593
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:20,000
It's the grinder at the back of the jaw.

594
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:25,000
We sift through the sample, finding plenty of dirt, but not enough tater.

595
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:28,000
Then a sharp eye changes that in an instant.

596
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:31,000
Ah, a bead.

597
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:32,000
A bead?

598
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:33,000
There you go.

599
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:34,000
Oh nice.

600
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:35,000
Look at that.

601
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:36,000
That's what's called a seed bead.

602
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:38,000
Wow, that is awesome.

603
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:39,000
Look at that.

604
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:41,000
And this would have been European.

605
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,000
Yeah, made in Italy, and Venice most likely.

606
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,000
It's strange because it's so tiny.

607
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:48,000
It's actually made out of glass.

608
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:52,000
That is so wild to think that something so fine, so small,

609
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:57,000
produced in Venice, made its way onto a beach in North Carolina,

610
00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:58,000
hundreds of years ago.

611
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:00,000
Ah, it's so cool.

612
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:05,000
These are very, very good examples of the difference between pre-European and European.

613
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:10,000
These very European artifacts are being integrated within Native American dress.

614
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:15,000
It replaced the shell-based currency with glass beads.

615
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:20,000
Something very small, but very significant.

616
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:24,000
This bead may be all that's left of one of the famed colonists of Roanoke,

617
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:28,000
a tiny forensic clue that speaks to us from the past,

618
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:32,000
and shows us that not only does beauty endure, it informs.

619
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:37,000
There is evidence to indicate that that last colony came down here.

620
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:39,000
Why is it still so controversial, do you think?

621
00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:41,000
Why do you think that so many people don't accept that?

622
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:48,000
Before John White left the colony, there was some discussion of moving 50 miles into the main.

623
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:54,000
While most people have taken 50 miles into the main to mean into the mainland,

624
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:58,000
it's just as possible that main means coast.

625
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:04,000
And Croatoan Island happens to be, you guessed it, 50 miles down the coast from Roanoke.

626
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:12,000
As we continue to explore the site, the North Carolina skies open up,

627
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:15,000
so we run for the cover of a small tent.

628
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:20,000
Our dig is on hold, but Scott wants to show me a recently uncovered artifact here

629
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:25,000
that could be the strongest tie yet between the Croatoan tribe and the Roanoke colony.

630
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:26,000
Okay, you ready?

631
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:28,000
What the hell is that?

632
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:37,000
I'm on Hatteras Island with the Croatoan Archaeological Society,

633
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:43,000
which is excavating a Native American site that existed at the same time as the lost colony of Roanoke.

634
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:49,000
Now, historian Scott Dawson is about to show me one of the strongest pieces of evidence yet

635
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:54,000
that the lost colony may have made a new home here with the Croatoan tribe.

636
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:56,000
What the hell is that?

637
00:38:56,000 --> 00:39:01,000
This is the handle of a raker, which is a sword.

638
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:02,000
Wow.

639
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,000
And the blade would have been coming this way.

640
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:05,000
Sure, yeah, yeah.

641
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,000
So the handle would have come here.

642
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:11,000
So this is definitely from the 1500s. This is from early colonial times.

643
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:17,000
And typologically, it's been dated using other samples to around 1580, 1590.

644
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:21,000
Wow. So this really is right in the money. This is lost colony time right here.

645
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:28,000
That's right. And the rapier is particularly good because the rapier is an extremely expensive gentleman sword,

646
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:31,000
and they even said in the sources they would not trade her part with her sword.

647
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:36,000
Wow, right. So if it's something that they wouldn't have traded that was this valuable and this precious,

648
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:38,000
possibly was actually brought here by its owner.

649
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:40,000
Right. It's reasonable.

650
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:42,000
That is extraordinary.

651
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:46,000
The rapier handle isn't the only significant colonial relic found at this site.

652
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:50,000
They found an Elizabethan gun barrel and even Nuremberg tokens,

653
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,000
like the ones found at the original Roanoke site.

654
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:58,000
The presence of these artifacts suggests the colonists and Native Americans

655
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:02,000
may have been living here together at the same time.

656
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:06,000
And for you, Scott, do you think the lost colony folks came here?

657
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:07,000
Are you convinced of that?

658
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:11,000
Most of my reasoning for believing they came down here is from the primary sources.

659
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:15,000
They literally wrote down they came here, they had a relationship with this tribe.

660
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:18,000
I mean, those things, the historical context can't be thrown out the window.

661
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,000
And in terms of the archaeological record?

662
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:25,000
The archaeology is very circumstantial, but it's very compelling.

663
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:30,000
Right. Until we find that one magical object that seals the deal, you'll continue to dig.

664
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:32,000
Oh, yeah. I'm not stopping.

665
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:34,000
Thank you so much.

666
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:35,000
Thanks, Josh.

667
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:36,000
Thank you.

668
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:08,000
For today, those questions remain.

669
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:11,000
But what we do know is that the disappearance of Roanoke

670
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:14,000
couldn't stop the colonization of North America.

671
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:20,000
Soon after, Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in the now United States.

672
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:24,000
The same determination that drove the first colonists inspired their successors

673
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:30,000
and continues to inspire researchers like Charles Ewing, Eric Dietz, and Scott Dawson.

674
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:36,000
Thanks to them, it appears that one day soon, we may know for sure what happened to the lost colony.

675
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:38,000
One thing is certain, though.

676
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:44,000
The bravery of Roanoke's settlers reminds us that exploration always means risk,

677
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:49,000
and that those who dare sometimes are lost, but not forgotten.