Dead Men Tell No Tales, but Animal Bones Do: a Faunal Analysis of Queen Anne’s Revenge

Abstract

The Golden Age of Piracy was a historic period ranging from 1650 to 1720 CE which saw the rise of piracy across the Atlantic Ocean in response to the growing and changing global political climate. Since its end, pirates have become cultural symbols of rebellion and adventure as the lack of information about them leads to an air of mystery that many people seek to fill with tales. One pirate remains one of the most infamous in both history and fantasy: Blackbeard and his ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Archaeology has allowed us to interpret the material history that pirates have left behind in an attempt to establish and understand a pirate culture and reveal what was previously unknown. Part of the pirate culture yet to be fully established is their sustenance and how they survived as a criminal group who did not have standard access to ports to purchase provisions. Zooarchaeology, the study of faunal remains in context with human material culture, allows for us to interpret part of the diet within a site. Using Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge and comparing the faunal remains with those from contemporary ships La Belle and Earl of Abergavenny, we can study what a pirate diet looked like in comparison to other contemporary legal vessels.