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Twice in American history, entire groups of people
have suddenly disappeared to the point that archaeologists and
anthropologists today cannot say where they went or what happened to
them.
One was the first boatload of English settlers in the New World. In
1587, they established a colony on Roanoke Island, off the Atlantic
coast of what is now the state of North Carolina. The settlement had
great difficulties with food and hostile Indians, so its governor went
back to England to get supplies and arms.
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When he returned, the whole colony of about 100 people had vanished
without a trace. All that was left in what became known as the Lost
Colony was the word “ROATAN,” carved into a tree. The Roatans were
Indians in the area.
The second mystery evolved several hundred years earlier, and several
thousand kilometers to the west, in what is now the state of Colorado,
past the Rocky Mountains in a place called “Mesa Verde” - “green table”
or tabletop in Spanish.
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A mesa is a long, flat-topped mountain, rising above a valley. About
1,900 years ago, this one was the home of a native people that today’s
Navajo Indians call the Anasazi - the ancient ones.
They were peaceful Stone Age bean farmers, hunters, and basketmakers. At
first they lived in pit houses sunk into the top of the mesa. Then,
about the year 1250, they climbed down the sheer cliffside using
perilous hand- and toeholds, and began living among the rocks. To ward
off the boiling sun and howling Colorado winds, they carved chambers for
shelter and ceremonies.
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One can see the largest cluster of chambers, now called “Cliff Palace,”
which housed about 200 people. There was water there, seeping through
rocks into pools in the chambers.
As you can imagine, enemies had a hard time pursuing them there, so the
Anasazi would seem to have been safe from attack.
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But within only 50 years or so of moving in, they disappeared from Mesa
Verde, which is now a U.S. national park.
Why did they leave, and where did they go? No one knows for sure, but
unlike the case at Roanoke Island, there’s a clue: There is evidence
that a terrible drought set in. Archeologists believe they simply left
for greener mesas and blended into neighboring tribes.
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