Jamestown Excavation Unearths Four Bodies- And a Mystery in a Small Box

[appalachiablue]

Source: Washington Post

Jamestown, Va.- When friends buried Capt. Gabriel Archer here about 1609, they dug his grave inside a church, lowered the coffin into the ground and placed a sealed silver box on the lid.

The English outpost was then a desperate place. The "starving time," they called it. Scores had died of hunger and disease. Survivors were walking skeletons, besieged by Indians and reduced to eating snakes, dogs and one another.

The tiny, hexagonal box, etched with the letter "M," contained seven bone fragments and a small lead vial, and it probably was an object of veneration, cherished as disaster closed in on the colony.

Continued at the link,

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/jamestown-excavation-unearths-four-bodies--and-a-mystery-in-a-small-box/2015/07/27/0bb51cb8-2a59-11e5-a5ea-cf74396e59ec_story.html

[Raine1967]

1. Amazing read.

The colonies really have a dark history.

We became states and then a country — but this is a dark story. I am glad we are able to read about and learn about it.

[NCarolinawoman]

2. This is fascinating.

And very very sad .

[Historic NY]

3. I try to get there every year when I'm at my place at Wmsburg...

the young archaeologists are always willing to show you the yields of the years digs. In 2013 we were there when it was very cold and windy and apparently one overheard my conversation with a couple friends about the digs. He went to where the graves were being excavated and opened the coverings so we could see. Its amazing what was once thought lost is still there. They have done much to correct the record of assumptions from the past with modern techniques.

http://historicjamestowne.org/

[SoapBox]

4. Wow...what an article.

And to think how awful the circumstances became.

The other thing was how young these 4 men were...others there were probably young too.

Amazing read.

[Historic NY]

7. Read about Jane and her story....from the hard time.

http://historicjamestowne.org/archaeology/jane/

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. I don't see a "mystery"....

I see a sanctification to make the church "Holy Ground".

The bones in the silver box were probably from a saint.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

6. So what's the proper time frame til one's bones are display pieces

400 years?

Do folks who died in the 1700s get to rest in piece a bit longer until the shovels are broken out and folks go relic hunting?

At what point in the future do the remains of our recently deceased loved ones become fair game to be dug up, photographed and stuck in cases under lights for people to gawk at? Around 2400 AD til it's socially acceptable?

Sounds like a case for cremation.

[Historic NY]

8. The bodies once removed are not on put on display....

the are brought to the lab onsite for forensic study. No photography is allowed of any of the artifacts or of them. From my understanding most of these were thought long gone into the James River, hence Jamestown Rediscovered. I believe reburial will be done in the future. There is a contemporary cemetery on the site.

[snooper2]

11. 420 years

[marions ghost]

9. Interesting

Jamestown Island is kind of a spooky place, marshy and piney and full of ticks and mosquitoes. I once worked on some digs around there, not this one but another in the area. If you believe in ghosts, you will find them at Jamestown. The early colonists had a tough time.

[Blue_Tires]

10. kick

[Jesfaux]

12. Silver Box

I know that this may make little sense but I've been thinking why is there an M on the box? The persons name that was buried with it did not start with an M at all, and I was wondering, what if it is not an M? What if it is from another alphabet or something else in meaning? I first thought of Greek letters, then I wondered into the Phoenician alphabet which was first uncovered in the 17th century which is around this time at Jamestown, could there be any connection?