Artists and scientists worked together to
create this sculpture that shows what Jane, a colonial American, might
have looked like. A study of the teen’s remains indicates she was
cannibalized after she died.
Credit: StudioEIS, Don Hurlbert/Smithsonian
11 comments:
Wow! I knew that some people in poor parts of the world resorted to cannibalism, but I never knew that this could have happened in Colonial America. The fact that the person who cut her skull in two was very hesitant shows that they probably did not want to eat her, yet they had to. What people did to stay alive was so... I don't really know how to describe it. Overall, this is a great find in archeology and a great article.
That is a really interesting article. I wonder why they target such a young girl. Was it because she was vulnerable? Was she their first victim? Is their more? If so where?
This is kind of like Anthropology and Science in one article. We learned about a burial site in Sudan, Africa. It is kind of cool to think that people in Colonial America resorted to cannibalism when they had no food. Obviously because I say it is cool doesn't mean I want to resort to cannibalism. I am surprised that we didn't learn about this last year during the Colonial Fair unit that we did. This was a great article, but I wish it had more information.
Whoa! It's amazing how many people immediately think to resort to cannibalism in certain circumstances. I agree with Bianca on "why would they target such a young girl?". I don't see if they wanted to do it because she is the easiest to target, or if they just had a good chance to do it.
Wow! I've heard about starving people resorting to cannibalism (ever heard of the Donner Party?) but I never knew it happened in colonial America. However, I have heard about a My America book called The Starving Time and it's about Jamestown and seems to be at about the same time period.
Gracie, I think we didn't learn about this during Colonial Fair because it's kind of disgusting in a way. Bianca and Dylan, from what I read in the article, Jane died of natural causes (disease or starvation) and was not killed. I also think it's amazing that these scientists could create a whole head from just some skull fragments.
I wonder why they removed all of her organs, also. Did they eat those, too? Eating human brain, that's just . . . ugh. I'm just saying!
I rate this article an A.
I think that resorting to cannibalism isn't that big of a deal, it happens a lot. And given the fact that the girl was already dead made the situation a bit better. However, if the body was lifeless for a couple days, there could've been dangerous bacteria that could've been fatal to their health. However, more than any of that, I thought it was really cool how the scientist could say that her organs were removed too. How would they know, by that time, wouldn't already have decayed anyway? And I think it's really cool that they can make a model of what they think "Jane" looks like by just inserting her skull into an X-RAY machine. And to find out how old she was, did they use carbon 14 dating. *wink wink lol* Anyway, I think this article was pretty cool... :)
I agree with everyone saying, I have hear about cannibalism, but I never knew it happened in Colonial America. Like a few people said, it is better that the human was dead, but honestly, like Chloe said, that is disgusting. Especially if she was dead for a few days because there would be ALOT of bacteria (in my opinion). Of course the people probably weren't that conscious of those things. I agree that it is pretty cool that they can make a model of what they thought "Jane" looked like with only the things that they had: a few pieces of the skull. Overall this article was pretty disgusting :)
Wow! I had no idea that cannibalism occurred in America! I have only heard about this is stories and movies, but it seems strange that this is actually true! The villagers must have been really starved. At least the people who ate the woman kind of had feelings because they hesitated and knew that they had to save themselves from starvation. It is pretty cool how the scientists figured out how "Jane" looks like. I wonder if the people who ate Jane actually survived this whole thing at all. This was a really interesting article, but really gross...
I thought that this article was only so-so. I mean, the fact that cannibalism existed in the early days of America (trust me, I know how cheesy that sounds) was pretty interesting and sort of disgustingly amazing (not in a good way, in a, "Oh wow, I never knew that this could happen!" kind of way), but I feel like the article didn't go into the topic of cannibalism enough and didn't explain enough about Jane, including her age (carbon 14 dating, people!). But, the topic itself was relatively interesting, and I was perplexed while I was reading it, which is definitely the type of emotion you want to have while reading a science article (although I didn't find this to be as sciencey as human naturey (both not real words, I know). I usually like gross facts, but this seemed a little over the top, even for me. I would give the article a B. :-|
This is strange to me. We think of Americans as so civilized, and yet they are eating a 14 year old girl. They were starving, but cannibalism seems outrageous, especially eating a kid.
This is so interesting, because they were so determined not to starve, that the settlers decided to be cannibals other than move from the area. I also think that in England they should have taken better precautions so that the food did not spoil.
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