Written in Bone: Chapters 1–3

by Sally M. Walker
This engaging nonfiction book explores the work of scientists who analyze skeletal remains to learn more about early European colonists in America.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–6, Chapters 7–9
15 words 1420 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. scrutinize
    look at critically or searchingly, or in minute detail
    He looked at the skull, particularly the teeth. Then he scrutinized the ends of each leg bone and arm bone. He examined the pelvis, the part of the skeleton formed
by the bones of the hip and lower backbone.
  2. intrigue
    cause to be interested or curious
    The lives and deaths of these settlers have long intrigued historians and
 scientists.
  3. antiquity
    an artifact surviving from the past
    During the late 1890s, a group of women founded
 an organization, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, to protect the church ruins.
  4. excavation
    the site of an archeological exploration
    In the 1940s 
and 1950s, the National Park Service began formal archaeological excavations on
the foundations of other buildings at Jamestown and located a cemetery.
  5. conclusive
    forming a decisive end or resolution
    These finds — particularly the military objects — seemed to support the idea that the archaeologists had rediscovered James Fort. But they still needed conclusive proof.
  6. palisade
    a strong fence made of stakes driven into the ground
    When the colonists built the fort’s palisade walls, they dug deeply in the soil
 to stabilize the logs, which were placed side by side vertically.
  7. succumb
    be fatally overwhelmed
    According to the historical record, almost 40 
percent of the settlers who 
came to the Chesapeake during the 1600s died within weeks
or months of their arrival. Illness killed some, while others
succumbed to starvation.
  8. trowel
    a small hand tool with a handle and metal blade
    As the archaeologists scraped the
 subsoil surface, their trowels exposed a dark area.
  9. meticulous
    marked by extreme care in treatment of details
    No matter how high the level of excitement may be at an archaeological dig,
 nothing can be permitted to disrupt the meticulous use of scientific methods and
procedures.
  10. telltale
    disclosing unintentionally
    This 
fragility is characteristic of
many Jamestown skeletons,
thanks to the same beige-orange, clay-filled subsoil that
created the telltale posthole soil
 stains proving the team had found James Fort.
  11. consistent
    in agreement or reliable
    Yet Hudgins saw other signs that seemed to indicate that the body may not have been shrouded. The boy's arms weren't at his sides or in any other dignified position consistent with a seventeenth-century shrouded English burial.
  12. proximity
    the property of being close together
    Despite the arms
being askew, the close proximity of JR1225B's legs and feet, along
with the position of the toes, provided sufficient evidence to confirm the presence of a shroud.
  13. protrude
    extend out or project in space
    The front of the jaw often protrudes farther forward than the
chin.
  14. sustain
    undergo, as of injuries and illnesses
    A depression in the front of
his skull, above his left eye socket,
revealed that he had sustained a blow to the head that had healed before his death.
  15. glean
    collect or gather bit by bit, especially information
    The stories gleaned from laboratory examinations and tests are detailed, fascinating, and sometimes shocking.
Created on Tue Oct 20 15:59:54 EDT 2020 (updated Mon Jun 16 12:59:26 EDT 2025)

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