Jamestown’s Dark Winter

Jamestown, Virginia. The site of the first permanent English colony the Americas settled in 1607 and the home of the archaeological site “Historic Jamestowne” today. It has long been speculated that the harsh conditions faced by the colonists during the winter of 1609, often referred to as the “starving time,” might have made them desperate enough to participate in the unthinkable.

In the summer of 1609, a fleet of English ships sails across the Atlantic – bound for the American colony in Jamestown, Virginia. It carried over 500 settlers, 9 ships. Jamestown had been founded two years earlier but had not prospered and in fact the first couple of years of Jamestown’s history is pretty much a colossal failure.

The archaeologists and scientists examine the bones excavated in the cellar at Jamestown. Unlike the bones of the burials, these bones have unusual cut marks, which were pointing to a possibility even more bizarre than murder. Could this be evidence of cannibalism?