Written in Bone: Life and Death in Colonial Chespaeake.

Format:

Video

Series:

Academic Video Online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Forensic anthropology.

Human remains (Archaeology).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (5 minutes)

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] : Smithsonian Institution Press, [date of publication not identified]

System Details:

video file

Summary:

Doug Owsley, forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, leads a group of students in an examination of bones found at Jamestown and other colonial settlements. He tells of the historical discoveries that have resulted from his scientific work. Life in the 1600s was hard in England but even harder in the Chesapeake. Colonists faced brutal summer heat and humidity, spells of hunger, heavy labor, outbreaks of conflict, and illness. Along with the usual maladies, diseases for which they had no immunity ravaged newcomers. Limited medical knowledge and lack of larger family support made their lives even more precarious. Bone and burial data reveal the rigors of life in the Chesapeake. A high death rate of young people and the chronic shortage of women forced the settlers to rely on recent immigrants to renew their population. Not until the 1700s could American-born colonists increase their numbers.

Notes:

Title from resource description page (viewed February 13, 2020).

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