Starving residents of the first permanent US settlement consumed one another to survive, according to a new analysis of recently unearthed bones by anthropologists at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
The bones were found in Virginia, at the site of the Jamestown colony, which was established in 1607 by 104 settlers. In 1609, a shortage of provisions, combined with drought and rampant disease, wiped out an estimated 80 percent of the colony's residents. Experts had already determined that the settlers consumed dogs, cats, and even rats to sustain themselves, but newly unearthed human bones — those of a teenage girl — add compelling evidence to earlier speculation that they had also eaten their fellow colonists.
via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/1/4290936/jamestown-early-settlers-cannibalism
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