An engraved rock discovered nearly 100 years ago at the North Carolina-Virginia border has sparked a decades-long debate about clues that could help solve one of the oldest mysteries in the nation.
It’s been over 400 years since the Roanoke Colony on Chesapeake Bay disappeared without a trace, save for the word ‘Croatoan’ carved into a fence post.
Over 100 settlers went unaccounted for, and all buildings had been dismantled.
In 1937, however, a middle-aged man presented scholars with a 21-pound stone he claimed to have found – and, etched into its surface appeared to be a message from a member of the Lost Colony, detailing a bloody massacre that took place at the site, according to National Geographic.
An engraved rock discovered nearly 100 years ago at the North Carolina-Virginia border has sparked a decades-long debate about clues that could help solve one of the oldest mysteries in the nation. The stone was signed by Eleanor Dare and addressed to her father, Governor John White, who returned to Roanoke in 1590 only to find everyone was gone
The markings on the rock were deciphered by researchers at Emory University, where the mysterious stone was initially brought.
Stunning photos in the June 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine show a close look at the deep etchings, standing out as a stark white against the brown of the stone’s surface.
It was signed by Eleanor Dare and addressed to her father, Governor John White, who arrived to the colony in 1590 after returning to England for supplies, only to find everyone was gone.
Virginia Dare, Eleanor’s daughter was the first English child born in the new world, according to National Geographic.
And, the text paints a grisly picture of what happened in his absence.
‘Father Soone After You Goe for England Wee Cam Hither,’ it reads, going on to describe two years of ‘Onlie Misarie & Warre,’ during which more than half of the colony – including Eleanor’s child and husband – were ‘Slaine with Much Misarie.’
In the years that followed its discovery, however, skepticism about its authenticity began to rise.
The Emory researchers had initially determined it to be authentic, and over three dozen additional stones also attributed to Dare were later found by a Georgia stonecutter.
A journalist in 1941, however, exposed the stonecutter as a fraud, according to National Geographic, and the ‘Dare stones’ were stored away for decades.
The revelation also cast doubt on the legitimacy of the original Dare stone.
It’s been over 400 years since the Roanoke Colony on Chesapeake Bay disappeared without a trace, save for the word ‘Croatoan’ carved into a fence post. Over 100 settlers went unaccounted for, and all buildings had been dismantled. Excavations at a Native American site on Croatoan Island show signs of European presence
Advanced analysis techniques that have emerged in the past few decades could finally help put the mystery to rest.
Ahead of a two-hour special aired on the History Channel last year on the stones, researchers took another look at the Dare stone, using a diamond-tip saw to trim off a tiny chunk.
‘From a purely geochemical perspective, there are tests available today that were not available just a few years ago, let alone 80 years ago,’ Brenau University President and geologist Ed Schrader, said last year.
‘There is also more historical and archaeological data available – and it is easy to share with scholars across all disciplines.
Stunning photos in the June 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine show a close look at the deep etchings in the mysterious stone
‘Naturally, we would be thrilled to help uncover that Brenau University owns perhaps the most significant artifact in pre-colonial American history,’ Schrader said.
‘However, if it is a fake, it is an outstanding, elaborately researched fake, and we could learn a lot about our history and our society in discovering how that came about, too.’
The 2017 tests revealed that the Dare stone was made almost entirely of white vein quartz.
Further analyses also uncovered elevated traces of gold, selenium, and copper – which could help to nail down its origin.
‘It’s very unusual to find elevated concentrations of all three of these metals together in vein quartz unless they occur in a mineralized zone or ore deposit,’ Schrader said at the time.
High enough levels of copper could indicate that it came from an area the Native Americans recognized as having copper-bearing ores in the Pre-Columbian era, which could have led to a mining effort.
Experts remain divided on the authenticity of the Dare stone. With new, multidisciplinary efforts to better understand its origins, scientists could soon find out if it truly does tell the tale of the lost colony – or was all an elaborate hoax.