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JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA—The remains of dozens of sturgeon that weighed hundreds of pounds have been found in the same James Fort kitchen cellar where archaeologists recovered the remains of a 14-year-old girl who had been cannibalized. Researchers think that the fish were eaten in 1609. The remains of at least 30 sturgeon have also been found in the John Smith well, which had been filled in with trash. “We had more sturgeon that could be devoured by dog and man, of which the industrious by drying and pounding, mingled with caviar, sorrel, and other wholesome herbs, would make bread and good meat,” Smith wrote in 1609. The girl’s butchered bones were probably placed in the kitchen trash during the spring of 1610, known as “The Starving Time.”
