Jamestown - Blog Posts

In a chilling revelation, the discovery of a 14-year-old girl’s skull in Virginia’s Jamestown Colony provided irrefutable evidence of cannibalistic practices during the bleak winter of 1609, known as the “Starving Time.” In 2012, this relic was unearthed, shedding light on a dark chapter in the colony’s history. The girl’s remains were interred alongside a macabre collection of butchered horse and dog bones, painting a grim picture of the desperation faced by the settlers.

Amid persistent rumors and conjecture surrounding the settlers’ resort to cannibalism for survival, this archaeological find marked the first concrete proof. The deeply etched scratch marks on the skull indicated that the flesh that was methodically sliced away. Examining the trauma at the frontal region of the skull, forensic anthropologist Doug Owsley concluded that it resulted from the brutal force used to access the brain.