Why did the Roanoke 'Lost Colony' (1587) and early Jamestown suffer so badly?
115 English settlers landed on Roanoke Island in July 1587; in August 1590 John White found the site empty and 'CROATOAN' carved on a post. Jamestown (1607) lost most of its people in the 'starving time' of 1609 to 1610. Stahle et al. (1998) showed from two Virginia baldcypress chronologies that 1587 to 1589 was the driest three years in 800 and 1606 to 1612 the driest seven in 770. We checked this against the newer, many-site seasonal rainfall atlas.
How it connects
This mystery has this clue
Seasonal rainfall atlas: the Roanoke drought was 1586 to 1588, worst in 1587
This mystery has this clue
Jamestown deaths and drought: the archived numbers give r = -0.11, not the published -0.71
This mystery has this hunch or step
The Roanoke drought began in 1586 and also hit Ralph Lane's first colony
This mystery has this hunch or step
Checked the Roanoke and Jamestown droughts with the seasonal rainfall atlas