Lost Colony of Roanoke Found?
Perhaps the best clue in more than 420 years to North Carolina's most famous mystery has just been revealed.
The remains of the Lost Colony, it turns out, could sit under an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course in Bertie County.
Researchers at the British Museum in London, acting at the request of a group of historians and archaeologists in North Carolina, have found a symbol hidden on an ancient map that could show where members of the English colony established on Roanoke Island in 1587 moved.
Representatives of the First Colony Foundation and scholars at the British Museum who appeared via video webcast announced the discovery Thursday in a news conference at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill's Wilson Library.
The elaborate "Virginea Pars" map was created by members of Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke Colony expeditions of 1584-1590, the first attempt to establish an English Colony in the New World.
The map, which is unusually accurate for its time, shows the coastal area from the Chesapeake Bay to Cape Lookout, and pinpoints the locations of several native American villages.
Brent Lane, an adjunct professor of Heritage Education at the University of North Carolina Kenan Institute and a scholar with the First Colony Foundation, was studying a map made by the leader of the 1587 colony expedition, John White, when he became intrigued with two patches of paper pasted over small parts of it.
One of the patches was in an area that the settlers had explored, and where some historians had theorized was a likely spot for them to have moved.
The patching technique was normal for the time. When artists wanted to make alterations, they would paste on a patch and draw or paint over it. Still, Lane asked British Museum officials whether they had ever tried to determine what was under the patches.
They hadn't.
When they put the map on a simple light table, which shined through the paper, they saw something startling. Under one patch was a large symbol that appeared show the location of a fort.
The site appears to be at or near what is now the Scotch Hall Preserve, a golf course and residential community just across the Albemarle Sound from Edenton.
Raleigh planned a capital, the "Cittie of Raleigh," and Lane said that the symbol may show both the planned location of that and the most likely place for the colonists to have moved.
Lost Colony Foundation members said Thursday that they were planning new scholarly and archaeological research to explore the new clue about the Bertie site. Early efforts to match pottery recovered from the area to the correct period have already produced some positive results, researchers said. - chicagotribune
Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony
A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke
Roanoke: The Lost Colony--An Unsolved Mystery from History
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Dog-Headed Humanoids
Crewe, England - 1969 - night
9-year old Mark was walking along the wide pavement street when he saw some strange characters coming toward him. He saw three of them and they were somewhat taller than normal humans. As they approached, he was stunned to see that they were dressed as men in suits, but had very large dog-like heads. These heads swayed widely from side to side as the creatures walked. Mark was absolutely terrified as they approached, but they seemed not to notice him and he passed by them safely. Terrified he ran all the way home.
Source: Fortean Times / Albert Rosales
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Alaska's Iliamna Lake monster may be a huge sleeper shark
For years, legendary tales from Scotland and Western Alaska described large animals or monsters thought to live in Loch Ness and Lake Iliamna. But evidence has been mounting that the Loch Ness and Lake Iliamna monsters may, in fact, be sleeper sharks.
Two exceptionally large Arctic sharks ply northern waters -- Greenland sharks and the Pacific sleeper sharks. During the last few years, scientists have documented Greenland sharks using the St. Lawrence Seaway, lending further credence to the hypothesis that some sharks can survive in freshwater. Bull sharks are also known to swim in fresh water, but this species needs warmer waters.
The idea of sharks possibly using Loch Ness is not new; that's long been one of the hypotheses explaining the Loch Ness Monster. But until now, nobody has suggested sleeper sharks, perhaps because they're secretive and so rarely seen. Continue reading at Alaska's Iliamna Lake monster may be a huge sleeper shark
Cryptozoology A To Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature
Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizensof the Deep
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Saudi police raid 'Smurf' concert
Police raided a theatre performance in Saudi Arabia where schoolkids had dressed up as the Smurf's because the music was un-Islamic.
The raid happened in the city of Taif after complaints about the religious music that was being played to accompany the performance by the kids aged between five and nine.
The Saudi Arabian newspaper "El Sharq" said that the anti-Smurf action by the police took place in front of a performance in front of around 2000 primary school children.
It said that the police raid had not gone down well with the audience who had protested loudly.
Although not illegal to play music in public many Saudis regard it as un-Islamic. - austriantimes
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Secret files missing at National Archives
The National Archives and Records Administration has lost track of dozens of boxes of confidential and secret government files at its records center just outside of Washington, the latest in a series of such incidents spanning more than a decade.
The missing classified materials include four boxes of top-secret restricted files from the Office of the Secretary of Defense as well as records from several U.S. Navy offices, documents obtained by The Washington Times show.
The problems came to light after a three-year investigation by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Office of Inspector General. While the investigation ended last year, officials recently provided a copy of the report on their findings in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
It’s not the first time the inspector general's office has raised concerns about missing files at the Washington National Records Center. According to the report, the office conducted previous inventories of classified materials in 1998 and 2004, concluding that boxes were missing during both of those searches.
“According to those staffers that can recall, minimal corrective actions were taken,” the inspector general's office noted in the report on its most recent investigation.
NARA officials say they cooperated with investigators and insist there is no indication that any of the boxes were stolen. Instead, they blame the problems on “bad data” for a tiny fraction of the millions of boxes stored in the Washington National Records Center, where 250,000 boxes enter the Suitland facility each year.
Joe Newman, a spokesman for the nonpartisan watchdog group Project on Government Oversight (POGO), said the inspector general’s report raised troubling but not unexpected questions.
“While it’s troubling that there are boxes of top-secret and confidential materials missing, it’s not entirely unexpected considering the sheer volume of data the National Archives and Records Center is responsible for storing and protecting,” he said.
“The report raises some issues of careless handling and filing of materials that certainly deserve the attention of the administration. However, these problems also raise bigger questions of how recent budget cuts and staffing reductions have affected the ability of the National Archives to do its job effectively.”
NARA, the nation’s official record keeper, does not own the facility where the records are stored, instead leasing the property from the General Services Administration. Likewise, the boxes, which are stored in row after row of high shelves in rooms twice the size of football fields at the facility, do not belong to NARA, either. The agency acts as the custodian and stores the boxes temporarily until they’re either destroyed or turned over for permanent placement in the National Archives.
William J. Bosanko, appointed last year as NARA’s Executive For Agency Services, said officials are continuing what he called a “very aggressive search” for boxes reported missing in the inspector general’s investigation.
Mr. Bosanko said one measure officials think will result in better tracking is the bar coding of boxes as they come in and out of the records center. Previously, he said, paper tracking slips, which could detach from boxes and fall off shelves, could result in a box reported as missing when it is still in the records center.
Another problem he cited is the fact that agencies sometimes have asked for boxes to be returned, only to later send them back to NARA in different boxes with different so-called “accession numbers,” which are used to track the materials.
In addition, Mr. Bosanko said, tracking information can be lost as boxes age or sustain damage. He said the records center is an aging building that’s had troubles with leaks over the years, as well as sustaining damage from an earthquake last year. Officials are working to replace the building, he said.
In an interview, Paul Brachfeld, NARA’s inspector general, said the problems span years and highlight more than just record-keeping issues.
After years of what he called “chronic disregard” about the situation at NARA, Mr. Brachfeld said, “I do believe finally they are taking my recommendations to heart.”
He said it’s too early to say whether problems will surface in future audits and investigations. Records show that a similar investigation had been under way reviewing unclassified materials held at the Suitland facility.
“It’s a process that’s going to have to be played out,” he said.
Congress was on notice about the missing records months ago. In a semiannual report to Congress last year, the inspector general's office told lawmakers that 80 boxes of top-secret and restricted materials were missing.
“This investigation was closed subject to continuing updates regarding the recovery of remaining material,” the inspector general told Congress.
The agencies listed in the report were the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Export Administration, the Atomic Energy Commission, the Department of Energy, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency as well as four components of the U.S. Navy. Each of the agencies was notified. The report did not say when the records were compiled. - WashTimes
Records of Our National Life: American History from the National Archives
Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives
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