There was cannibalism in the English colony of Jamestown - Público.pt

descriptions speak of a terrible winter, that of 1609-1610, the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia. There was a drought of several years, the Indian tribes threw the British to kill, even water wells would not be drinking. The population was at the limit. Horses, dogs, cats, snakes and rats have become food. Even the leather of the shoes served food, according to reports. Now, the archaeological discovery of the skull and a tibia of a young English girl of 14 years has shown that the ultimate taboo had been exceeded: English settlers practiced cannibalism that awful winter.

Jamestown was one of several British colonies in North America, founded in 1607. Drought and incompatibility with the Indian tribes have made in the winter of 1609, the British were isolated within the walls of the colony, which was next to the James River. That winter, 80% of the population died, according to the magazine National Geographic .

Among those killed was the young Jane, an Englishwoman whose tibia and part of the skull were found at the archaeological site of Jamestown by the team led by William Kelso, Jamestown Rediscovery Project, and James Horn, Colonial History Center of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States.

These traces were found in what was once a basement, along with the bones of horses and dogs, which were eaten by people. The bones of the young English were sent to the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, where the forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley analyzed traces. The skull of the girl had several cuts on his face, hammering the brow bone and skull base. The aim would be to remove the brain, the muscles of the cheek and tongue. Parties entering into gastronomic recipes of the seventeenth century, according to a statement from the museum.

“The bone fragments recovered have standards of cutting and punching that show a complete lack of habit to prepare the meat,” says Douglas Owsley. “However, there is a clear intention to dismember the body and remove the meat from the skull and brain for consumption,” the anthropologist, quoted by Wired magazine . “From the experience I have with prehistoric skeletons, [the marks on the remains of Jane] are absolutely consistent with the acts of cannibalism found in these cases [prehistoric].”

At that time, there were reports of cannibalism in Jamestown, but had never found physical evidence. The researchers argue that it is likely that Jane was already dead when his body was subjected to cannibalism.

“This discovery is phenomenal,” believes Julia King, an archaeologist from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, who studied these colonies of the seventeenth century. Speaking to the magazine Science , the researcher says that this requires a turnaround in the status of the American Indian, considered wild by European settlers. “There is evidence that civilized people [Europeans] were forced to cannibalism.”