Snake Bones

“Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?”

One of the most well-known fictional archaeologists, Indiana Jones, is famous for this quote and his hatred of snakes. For the archaeologists at Jamestown, however, snakes couldn’t be a more exciting and welcome discovery!

At Jamestown, we have identified two kinds of snakes: non-venomous snakes, part of the family Colubridae, and venomous snakes, part of the family Viperidae. So far, the only snake bones we have found are vertebrae, which make up the spinal column, and ribs. Snake vertebrae and ribs cannot be used to identify specific species.

By looking at the shape of the vertebrae, we can identify whether or not a snake was venomous. Venomous snakes will have an additional spinal projection on the bottom of each vertebra. Snakes can have anywhere from 100 to 400 vertebrae, and the various bony points you see on each vertebra act as muscle attachments. This special anatomy is what allows snakes to slither!

George Percy wrote how the desperation of the Starving Time forced colonists, “to search the woods and to feed upon serpents and snakes.” All the snake bones found at Jamestown are from contexts associated with the Starving Time and corroborate such writings. The colonists ate whatever they could find as, “nothing was spared to maintain life.”

Virginia today has a diverse snake population, with three main species of venomous snakes and over 30 species of non-venomous snakes. Venomous snake species are the northern cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus), eastern copperhead (Agkistrodon contorix), and timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). Some common species of non-venomous snakes include kingsnakes (genus Lampropeltis), water snakes (genus Nerodia), green snakes (genus Opheodrys), rat snakes and corn snakes (genus Pantherophis), and garter snakes (genus Thamnophis). The eastern garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) is Virginia’s official state snake!

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