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Colonial Skeleton Stumps Archaeologists |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Sunday, 26 March 2006 |
March 24, 2006 4:36PM
Results from other recent tests on bone samples confirmed that the Jamestown skeleton was an immigrant to America, showing that he ate a diet rich in wheat as opposed to an American corn diet, researchers said.
The quest to identify a nearly intact skeleton found at Jamestown continues.
Jamestown officials said this week that without DNA proof, researchers are doing other studies to test their theory that the skeleton discovered in 2002 belongs to Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold, a founder of the first permanent English settlement in North America, established almost 400 years ago.
The announcement came after The Church of England issued a statement that tests have cast doubts on the possibility that the skeleton belonged to Gosnold.
Last June, researchers took a bone sample from an unmarked grave under the floor of a church in Shelley, England, thought to be the likely location of the remains of Gosnold's sister, Elizabeth Gosnold Tilney. It was the first time The Church of England had authorized such research for scientific purposes.
DNA from the Jamestown and Shelley skeletons did not match. But Jamestown researchers said last November that teeth and bone tests showed the woman was middle-aged, while Gosnold's sister died at around 70. They also said they remained convinced they had correctly identified Gosnold based on historical, archaeological and forensic evidence.
The test results later were examined by the Advisory Panel on the Archaeology of Christian Burials in England, which decided that the woman could be much older, the church statement said. Jamestown researchers then were asked to do further tests, which placed the death of the Shelley woman in 1690, plus or minus 50 years. Tilney died in 1646.
British scientists believe it is likely that the Shelley remains are that of Tilney, Nick Clarke, spokesman for the Diocese of St. Edmundsbury & Ipswich, said in the statement.
"If that is the case, then the DNA result would rule out the American remains being Bartholomew Gosnold," Clarke said.
Jamestown officials are discussing the advisory panel's interpretation with researchers to try to reconcile the differences, said William Kelso, director of archaeology at the Jamestown site.
"I think the weight of the evidence tips the scale toward (the Jamestown skeleton being) Gosnold," Kelso said in an interview with The Associated Press. For example, scientists have determined that the skeleton is that of a European man in his mid- to late-30s. Gosnold was 36 when he died after an illness in 1607, three months after arriving in Virginia. The skeleton also was buried in a coffin -- usually reserved at the time for people of higher status -- with a decorative captain's staff on the lid.
"But I'm willing to say, 'OK, let's consider what some other scientists are saying,'" Kelso said. "That's the only way we can evaluate it fairly."
Douglas Owsley, forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History, directed the forensic testing and said experts had analyzed samples blindly, with no knowledge of the desired results.
Dental aging tests showed the woman was 39 to 43 when she died and bone tests put the age at about 46, he said. Other factors, such as all the teeth being in place and a good spinal column, support the woman being middle-aged, he added.
"I don't think it's her (Tilney)," Owsley said by telephone.
Kelso said research now will be used to rule out the possibility that the Jamestown skeleton is Gosnold.
Minerals from drinking water are deposited in teeth as they form during infancy and leave a chemical signature that can be correlated to ground water. If tests on tooth samples, done with British funding, determine that the skeleton is of a man who did not grow up in Suffolk, England, as Gosnold did, that may prove he is not Gosnold.
Results from other recent tests on bone samples confirmed that the Jamestown skeleton was an immigrant to America, showing that he ate a diet rich in wheat as opposed to an American corn diet, researchers said.
http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=12000041X1CO&page=2 |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream:
Ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.” William Shakespeare soliloquy from Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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