No Cannibalism

"Ah, hello. Well first of all I'd like to apologize for the behaviour of certain of my colleagues you may have seen earlier, but they are from broken homes, circus families and so on and they are in no way representative of the new modern improved British Navy. They are a small vociferous minority; and may I take this opportunity of emphasizing that there is no cannibalism in the British Navy. Absolutely none, and when I say none, I mean there is a certain amount, more than we are prepared to admit, but all new ratings are warned that if they wake up in the morning and find any toothmarks at all anywhere on their bodies, they're to tell me immediately so that I can immediately take every measure to hush the whole thing up."
--Graham Chapman, Monty Python

Cannibalism at Jamestown

I know many of my American pioneer ancestors had been guilty of some pretty outrageous behaviors, but this one is new to me. In today's news:

"Scientists said Wednesday that they have found the first solid archaeological evidence that some of the earliest American colonists at Jamestown, Va., survived harsh conditions by turning to cannibalism."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/cannibalism-jamestown-archaeological-evidence_n_3193947.html

Apparently this took place during the 1609-1610 "Starving Time," but could have extended up to 1625. I had a number of ancestors at Jamestown and I know at least one of them was there in 1610 and several others arrived within the following decade.

When I toured Jamestown in 1973 (and kept the card you see here) we knew the settlers had it rough, but Jeeeeez.