Discovered: lost leaders of Jamestown.

• Position: THE BIG PICTURE - Jamestown, Virginia - Brief article

The 400-year-old skeletons recently unearthed in Jamestown--the first permanent British settlement in America--could shed new light on the colony's tumultuous beginnings. Using forensic analysis, chemical testing, and genealogical research, archaeologists identified the remains as belonging to Gabriel Archer, Robert Hunt, Ferdinando Wainman, and William West (see above)--high-status men who were among the leaders of the Virginia settlement founded in 1607. Archer died during the "starving time," the harsh winter of 1609-10, when disease ravaged the colony and desperate, famished settlers resorted to cannibalism to survive. Further DNA tests are still needed to determine the exact causes of death. In Archer's grave, researchers found what seems to be a Catholic reliquary, a container for holy relics, which suggests that Archer or those who buried him may have been secret Catholics in an Anglican colony. That could change our understanding of early religious history in America. "This is the beginning of American society," says...