The most poignant gallery, “Life and Death” is marked by a


placard, informing visitors that human remains are on display. Forensic anthropology, human osteoarcheology, DNA, and facial reconstructions have put faces and sometimes names to the deceased. For the first time, archeologists found clear evidence of cannibalism that took place during those first desperate years. The winter of 1609-1610 was a harrowing test of the colony’s


Partial skull and reconstructed face of a young teenage girl, named “Jane,” provide the first evidence to support cannibalism during the ‘Starving Time’.


will to survive. 300 settlers crowded within the fort with insufficient provisions. Threatened hostilities with the Indians and fractured leadership prevented the colonists from leaving the fort to hunt or forage. They ate anything they could—horses, dogs, cats, rats, and snakes. They ate shoe leather and, in final desperation, ate one another. In 2012, archeologists discovered human teeth, a fragmented


skull, and portion of a leg bone in an L-shaped cellar that contained 47,000 artifacts dating to 1610. It wasn’t odd to find human remains during a dig, but chop marks found on the forehead and back of the cranium indicate the skull had been chopped in two and forcefully removed from the body. Many fine cuts on the jaw revealed a sharp knife had removed flesh and soft tissue. “Jane,” as she is called, became the face of famine. Fires, droughts, disease, famine, and native hostility


Glass floor portal and placard floats above the remains of the third and fourth Statehouse, Virginia’s colonial capitol from1665-1699.


threatened to end the venture more than once. Despite it all Jamestown survived, grew, extended beyond its triangular palisades, and thrived. Marriages were performed, children were born, riches bore fruit in the form of natural resources rather than the hoped for precious metals, and in 1624 Virginia


The House & Home Magazine


73


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100