Douglas Owsley, the division head for physical anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, presented today a forensic analysis of 17th-century human remains proving that survival cannibalism took place in historic Jamestown. The findings answer a long-standing question among historians about the occurrence of cannibalism at Jamestown during the deadly winter of 1609–1610 known as the “starving time”—a period during which about 80 percent of the colonists died. The announcement was made with chief archeologist William Kelso from the Jamestown Rediscovery Project at Preservation Virginia, and historian James Horn, vice president of research and historical interpretation at Colonial Williamsburg; each expert provided context about the discovery and the history of the site.
My name is Becca Booker, and I am originally from East Tennessee. I received my anthropology undergraduate degree from Middle Tennessee State University. Currently I am at the University of West Florida working on my masters degree. I am working at UWF as a GTA and at the Gulf Adventure Center as a zip-line guide. My career goal is to become a maritime archaeologist.
Research: I am currently working on a sunken floating bunkhouse in the Escambia River. This vessel was a part of the cypress lumber industry along the river. We have used the handheld underwater magnetometer and and the side-scan-sonar on the site. We start excavation this summer.
Divers returning to the site of an ancient wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera have found artefacts scattered over a wide area of the steep, rocky sea floor. These include intact pottery, the ship’s anchor and some puzzling bronze objects. The team believes that hundreds more items could…
The mysteries behind Henry VIII’s warship the Mary Rose could lead to a better understanding of how British people lived over 500 years ago, researchers hope.
For the past 18 months the Mary Rose Trust has been working with sports scientists from the College of Engineering at Swansea University to discover more about the lives of medieval archers on board.
When the ship, which sank in 1545, was raised from the Solent in 1982 many thousands of medieval artefacts along with 92 fairly complete skeletons and 100 or so other human remains were recovered.
Nick Owen, a sport and exercise biomechanist at Swansea now hopes scientists across the world can help draw a “fuller picture” of those on board.
He said: “The pipe dream, albeit a very achievable pipe dream, is to create a database of laser scans, of micro-CT scans and a bio-bank of DNA that would become a resource which could be accessed anywhere in the world for further scientific research in all manner of fields. Read more
The Al Magar finds appear to show horse-like animals with the accessories of domestication
Recent archaeological discoveries on the Arabian Peninsula have uncovered evidence of a previously unknown civilisation based in the now arid areas in the middle of the desert.
The artefacts unearthed are providing proof of a civilisation that flourished thousands of years ago and have renewed scientific interest in man and the evolution of his relationship with animals.
The 300-odd stone objects so far found in the remote Al Magar area of Saudi Arabia include traces of stone tools, arrow heads, small scrapers and various animal statues including sheep, goats and ostriches.
But the object that has engendered the most intense interest from within the country and around the world is a large, stone carving of an “equid” - an animal belonging to the horse family. Read More.
A great way to engage with Anthropology is by listening to debates, discussions, and interviews with anthropologists on radio programmes. The following section provides links to audio podcasts categorised by subject matter or specialist area within anthropology.
Fort San Lorenzo sits on a promontory at the mouth of the Chagres River on Panama’s Caribbean coast. In 1671, the fleet of privateer Henry Morgan attacked it on the way to sack Panama City. Archaeologists are searching Lajas Reef, under the surf 200 yards offshore, where five of Morgan’s ships sank, for insight into pirate life.
Like an illuminated skyline at sea, two dozen cargo ships wait along Panama’s Caribbean coast. One after another, they enter Limon Bay and then the Gatun locks, three hydraulic chambers that lift the ships 85 feet above sea level. They exit into Gatun Lake and then the Chagres River. After 28 miles, through a cleaved mountain ridge and under the Pan-American Highway, the ships enter more locks—the Pedro Miguel lock and the two Miraflores locks—that ease the ships back down to sea level in Balboa Harbor, just southwest of Panama City. A trip through the Panama Canal from Atlantic to Pacific takes around nine hours and costs tens of thousands of dollars in tolls. Read More
