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Saturday, May 4, 2013

Do We Really Need to Know - Findings at Jamestown


The local news in Hampton Roads, Virginia, is abuzz with the findings that there was a reason the remains of a young girl showed evidence of extreme scarring.


Cannibalism.

Here is a link in case you've missed it (click here.) "Jane," a fourteen-year-old girl's remains, show evidence that the Jamestown survivors resorted to grisly measures to keep themselves alive.

Here's more from PBS about the Jamestown Rediscovery Project (click here.)

My question:  Do we really need to know this information?  Did you suspect as much anyway?  How does this add to your understanding of "the starving time" at Jamestown?



By: Carrie Fancett Pagels, author of "Return to Shirley Plantation: A Civil War Romance."  Carrie lives in the historic triangle of Virginia with her family.

13 comments:

  1. wow, I didn't know about this. How awful. So much of history shows the consequences of man's sin or the affects of tragedies. Wish there were a way to redeem this history.

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  2. I read about that and wondered the same thing. The facial reconstruction made it so much more real and made me think about the lives of those involved.

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  3. Wow, I really didn't need to see this. So sad that this happened...Okay, now I need to go to my 'happy place'....Lalalala

    Hugs and God bless ladies!

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  4. I could easily lived without that information. Maxie

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  5. It really does feel like TMI, but the forensic pathologists who have contributed to the findings are top notch (ie Owsley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_W._Owsley) so it's not like Geraldo Rivera is hypothesizing. It is still conjecture, and the skull isn't exactly a meaty area, plus we don't know if these remains were subject to Indian attack/animal or other predator. The bottom line is the settlement survived, they were Christian beings, and without their persistence there might not be an America.

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    1. Thanks so much DEBBIE for your comment. I wondered about that too--how do we not know if there was some other attack.

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  6. I think the discovery gives us a better understanding of what these people endured. Historically, I think we have a broader understanding of the realities of colonization of the North American continent. Philosophically, we can see what lengths that people will go to survive. Often, we don't want to believe the worst in ourselves and others, but even in reading the Bible God shows us the low levels to which people will reach. We like to think that humans are basically good, but the Bible tells us a different story. It makes me feel sad. I don't mind learning these things, but it isn't something I want to dwell upon.

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    1. I think you have a really well-balanced approach, KAY! Thanks for coming by!

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  7. Of course we need to know. The alternative is that someone decides that we shouldn't know, and that would be far worse

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