Roanoke Lost Colony Mystery May Be Solved Thanks To 16th Century Map

American and British researchers have discovered a clue bringing historians one step closer to the mystery that's baffled historians for hundreds of years- the location of the missing Roanoke colonists.

With the help of a 400-year-old map, researchers from the First Colony Foundation and the British Museum have found the symbol of a fort that could indicate where the group of settlers went after mysteriously disappearing from Roanoke Island, North Carolina, in 1590, the Associated Press reported Monday.

The clue was discovered in 2012, but it recently led explorers to dig up promising artifacts where the map says the fort stood in Bertie County, North Carolina.

"If we were finding this evidence at Roanoke Island, which is the well-established site of Sir Walter Raleigh's colony, we would have no hesitation to say this is evidence of Sir Walter Raleigh's colonies," First Colony Foundation President Phil Evans told the AP.

"But because this is a new site and not associated with Sir Walter Raleigh, we have to hesitate and ask questions and learn more. It's not Roanoke Island. It's a new thing, and a new thing has to stand some tests."

Roanoke was settled in 1587 by a group of about 120 colonists led by explorer John White. He left the island for England in search of supplies, but was delayed in his return due to England's war with Spain. When White came back in 1590, all of the men, women and children settlers were gone.

The only thing White found was the word "CROATOAN," the name of a local Native American tribe, carved into a tree.

White created the map in question, the "Virginea Pars," in the 1580s to represent Virginia and North Carolina. Tests conducted on the map detected a hidden symbol for the fort, believed to be drawn in invisible ink, that could have indicated a possible capital for Roanoke some 50 miles inland, WYFF reported.

The fort symbol was hidden underneath a patch of glued-on paper, on top of which is drawn a different fort.

Though they haven't found a fort, researchers are excited by the broken pottery and other artifacts recovered at the site near the Roanoke river because they indicate signs of life.

"That's why domestic wares are interesting to us," Evans told the AP.

"It tells us people were there long enough to break stuff. ... We're getting these types of wares in sufficient numbers that we think people are there and they're doing something and they're there for a good bit of time."

Researchers also believe the finds date back to the correct time period.

As they sort through the evidence, historians are also making sure not to mistake the artifacts as belonging to another set of people who lived there.

But FCF archaeologist Nicholas Luccketti told the AP, "Right now, we don't think so,"