Evidence of cannibalism discovered

White people who migrated to the United States used to eat cannibalism to survive the extremely harsh period of the early 17th century.

Jamestown is the name of a city in the state of Virginia, USA. Fort James, founded in 1607, was one of the first buildings in Jamestown. Recently anthropologists discovered the skull and tibia of a 14-year-old girl in a landfill at Fort James. The bones are about 400 years old.

When looking at bone fragments, scientists saw many abnormal cuts. They assumed that the old people had cut into the body of the teenage girl for meat, the BBC reported.

The skull of a 14-year-old girl. (Photo: BBC)

"We see a lot of cuts and cuts - on the forehead, behind the skull - and a puncture on the left side of the skull. The purpose of the cuts is to break the skull. her face was split, " commented Doug Owsley, an anthropologist of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in the US.

Some documents have documented the cannibalistic behavior of long-term British settlers in the United States in the 17th century. But this is the first time scientists have found concrete evidence of such behavior.

Owsley and colleagues believe that a 14-year-old teenage girl is the food of a community in the harsh winter of 1609-1610. Historians call this period "hunger period" , one of the most terrible periods in the process of America's formation. In 1609 and 1610, aboriginal warriors (whom Americans call Indians), besieged Fort James, caused white men inside the fortress to be in a state of extreme distress due to lack of food.

"Obviously one or more people have taken her meat and brains to eat. They face a very dangerous situation and are willing to do it," Owsley commented.

The team did not know what caused her to die, but they insisted that cutting the bones took place immediately after her death.