Written in Bone: Chapters 4–6

A different grave, found
 in Jamestown a few years before JR1225B, posed a set of puzzles — and possible 
solutions — no less compelling.

Kelso recalled, for example, that some of the courtiers who served Queen Elizabeth I of England had placed their own leading
staffs in her grave as a sign of respect.

Thanks to another principle of forensic anthropology, Owsley was able to assess the Captain's level of physical activity during his lifetime.

The Captain's remaining teeth showed moderate signs of wear and had a few small cavities.

A 1607 entry describes a somber yet intriguing event: “The two and twentieth day of August, there died Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, one of our council; he was honorably buried, having all the ordnance [cannons] in the fort shot off with many volleys of
small shot.”

Kelso doesn't believe that either Archer or Wenman, although important
in the Jamestown settlement, had
attained a status that would have
warranted placing a leading staff in their graves.

Kelso speculated that perhaps "the Englishmen made a big ceremony out
of Gosnold's burial as a show of force to quell rumors that many were dying."

Like many
extraordinary scientific discoveries, however, it began like any other research endeavor.

“Somehow, someone got
carried away, and an altercation got out of hand."

The act of grabbing whatever means were at hand to dig the grave rather than taking the time to get and use a proper tool indicates that the person or people who buried the boy’s body did so in haste and secrecy. The clandestine circumstances of the burial further support this scenario.

Cecil Calvert, also known as Lord
Baltimore, received a charter from King Charles l to establish a colony on land
purchased from the Yaocomaco people.

Because the lead coffins appeared to have been undisturbed for centuries, they could provide historians
 and scientists with an unprecedented opportunity to learn more about
seventeenth-century people, their burial
customs, and even their environment.

Inert gases do not react with other substances, so they don’t contribute to decomposition.

The team didn’t want deterioration to happen to the lead-coffin people. To avoid any degradation, team members pumped neutral
argon gas into the coffins, which doesn’t interact as oxygen can.

Lifting the lead coffins — the 
largest weighed almost 1,500
 pounds (680 kg) — was a formidable task.