Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland

Carter Hudgins and Danny Schmidt carefully excavated the grave, a process complicated by human decomposition. After death, microbes consume soft tissues, often leaving only bones, which tend to shift and settle over time. The skull, being the highest point, is typically uncovered first. Using delicate tools, Hudgins and Schmidt exposed the fragile skeleton, affected by moisture in the clay subsoil.

To preserve the burial scene, they “pedestaled” the bones, leaving them on a soil pad for examination. The straight alignment of the legs and feet indicated the boy had been shrouded, though the arms’ positions suggested otherwise. A loosely wrapped shroud could explain this discrepancy. The discovery of a Powhatan arrowhead near the femur pointed to a possible wound, though its impact on the boy’s death remained uncertain.

Owsley’s detailed examination aimed to uncover the boy’s life and death by considering factors like bone measurements and the arrowhead’s position. He noted that long bones grow until young adulthood, with epiphyses remaining separate from the shaft during growth years. The state of JR1225B’s epiphyses indicated he was a teenager. Teeth development, a reliable age indicator, showed that JR1225B’s second molars were worn, suggesting use for a few years, while wisdom teeth were not yet visible, supporting the estimate of being under 18.