2012

In 2012 another early James Fort-period building was discovered near the brick church tower. This L-shaped cellar had been used as a kitchen. Two large brick baking ovens were found fitted into the walls of the cellar. It was abandoned and filled in during the fort cleaning in June of 1610 that Governor De La Warre ordered after the “starving time winter” devastated the fort’s people and buildings. Mixed in with other evidence of the starving time were human bones that scientific investigation has proven are the first forensic evidence of survival cannibalism in an early European colony in North America. The bones are now on display in the Archaearium as “Jane.” Archaeologists also opened a site just south of the 17th-century brick church tower and identified a section of the fort’s east palisade wall and several dozen late 17th-century burials. The updates below cover these discoveries in more detail.

Dig Update Archive, 2004-present