Bog body

The remains of Lindow Man, a bog body dated to 2 BC – 119 AD

Bog bodies, which are also known as bog people, are the naturally preserved human corpses found in the sphagnum bogs of the Britain and Northern Europe. Unlike most ancient human remains, bog bodies have retained their skin and internal organs due to the unusual conditions of the surrounding area. These conditions include highly acidic water, low temperature, and a lack of oxygen, combining to preserve but severely tan their skin. Despite the fact that their skin is preserved, their bones are generally not, as the acid in the peat dissolves the calcium phosphate of bone.

The German scientist Dr Alfred Dieck catalogued the known existence of over 1850 northern European bog bodies in 1965. Most, although not all, of these bodies have been dated to the Iron Age, and many of them show signs of having been killed and deposited in a very similar manner, indicating some sort of ritual element, which many archaeologists believe show that these were the victims of human sacrifice in Iron Age Germanic paganism. Some of the most notable examples of bog bodies include Tollund Man and Grauballe Man from Denmark and Lindow Man from England.

Bog chemistry

There are a limited number of bogs which have the correct conditions for preservation of mammalian tissue. Most of these are located in the colder climes of northern Europe near bodies of salt water. For example, in the area of Denmark where the Haraldskær Woman was recovered, salt air from the North Sea blows across the Jutland wetlands and provides an ideal environment for the growth of peat. As new peat replaces the old peat, the older material underneath rots and releases humic acid, also known as bog acid. The bog acids, with pH levels similar to vinegar, conserve the human bodies in the same way as fruit is preserved by pickling. In addition, peat bogs form in areas lacking drainage and hence are characterized by almost completely anaerobic conditions. This environment, highly acidic and devoid of oxygen, denies the prevalent subsurface aerobic organisms any opportunity to initiate decomposition. Researchers discovered that conservation also required the body to be placed in the bog during the winter or early spring when the water temperature is cold—i.e., less than 4 °C (40 °F). This allows the bog acids to saturate the tissues before decay can begin. Bacteria are unable to grow rapidly enough for decomposition at temperatures under 4 °C.

The bog chemistry environment involves a completely saturated acidic environment, where considerable concentrations of organic acids and aldehydes are present. Layers of sphagnum and peat assist in preserving the cadavers by enveloping the tissue in a cold immobilizing matrix, impeding water circulation and any oxygenation. An additional feature of anaerobic preservation by acidic bogs is the ability to conserve hair, clothing and leather items. The Bronze Age Egtved Girl, also discovered in Jutland, Denmark, is a good example. Modern experimenters have been able to mimic bog conditions in the laboratory and successfully demonstrate the preservation process, albeit over shorter time frames than the 2,500 years that Haraldskær Woman's body has survived. Most of the bog bodies discovered had some aspects of decay or else were not properly conserved. When such specimens are exposed to the normal atmosphere, they may rapidly begin to decompose. As a result, many specimens have been effectively destroyed.

Historical context

Iron Age bog bodies

The Huldremose Woman found in Jutland, Denmark

The vast majority of the bog bodies that have been discovered date from the Iron Age, a period of time when the peat bogs covered a much larger area of northern Europe than they do currently. Many of these Iron Age bodies bear a number of similarities, indicating a known cultural tradition of killing and depositing these people in a certain manner. These Pre-Roman Iron Age peoples lived in sedentary communities, who had built villages, and whose society was hierarchical. They were agriculturalists, raising animals in captivity as well as growing crops. In some parts of northern Europe, they also hunted fish. Although independent of the Roman Empire, which dominated southern Europe at this time, the Bog People traded with the Romans.

For these people, the bogs held some sort of significance, and indeed, they placed votive offerings into them, often of neck-wrings, wristlets or ankle-rings made of bronze or more rarely gold. The archaeologist P.V. Glob believed that these were "offerings to the gods of fertility and good fortune", a viewpoint that is widely supported. It is therefore widely speculated that the Iron Age bog bodies were thrown into the bog for similar reasons, and that they were therefore examples of human sacrifice to the gods. Nonetheless, others speculate that the bog bodies were criminals who were executed before being deposited in the bog rather than religious sacrifices.

Many bog bodies show signs of being stabbed, bludgeoned, hanged or strangled, or a combination of these methods. In some cases the individual had been beheaded, and in the case of the Osterby Head found at Kohlmoor, near to Osterby, Germany in 1948, the head had been deposited in the bog without its body.

Usually the corpses were naked, sometimes with some items of clothing with them, particularly headgear. In a number of cases, twigs, sticks or stones were placed on top of the body, sometimes in a cross formation, and at other times forked sticks had been driven into the peat to hold the corpse down. According to the archaeologist P.V. Glob, "this probably indicates the wish to pin the dead man firmly into the bog." Some bodies show signs of torture, such as Old Croghan Man, who had deep cuts beneath his nipples.

Some bog bodies, such as Tollund Man from Denmark, have been found with the rope used to strangle them still around their necks. Some, such as the Yde Girl in the Netherlands and bog bodies in Ireland, had the hair on one side of their heads closely cropped, although this could be due to one side of their head being exposed to oxygen for a longer period of time than the other. The bog bodies seem consistently to have been members of the upper class: their fingernails are manicured, and tests on hair protein routinely record good nutrition. Strabo records that the Celts practiced auguries on the entrails of human victims: on some bog bodies, such as one of the Weerdinge Men found in southern Netherlands, the entrails have been partly drawn out through incisions.

Modern techniques of forensic analysis now suggest that some injuries, such as broken bones and crushed skulls, were not the result of torture, but rather due to the weight of the bog. For example, the fractured skull of Grauballe Man was at one time thought to have been caused by a blow to the head. However, a CT scan of Grauballe Man by Danish scientists determined his skull was fractured due to pressure from the bog long after his death.

Non-Iron Age bog bodies

There are of course bog bodies that are exceptions in that they do not date to the Iron Age. The oldest known bog body is that of the Koelbjerg Woman who was found in Denmark, and has been dated to around 8000 BCE, during the Stone Age. Amongst the most recent, which is the corpse of a woman found in Ireland, dates to the 16th Century CE, and was found in unhallowed ground, with evidence indicating that she committed suicide and was therefore buried in the bog rather than in the churchyard because she had committed a Christian sin. Bog bodies have also formed from the corpses of Russian and German soldiers killed fighting on the Eastern Front during the First World War in the Masurian Lake District region of north-eastern Poland.

Discovery and archaeological investigation

Ever since the Iron Age, the bogs have been used for the digging up of peat, which is used as a common fuel source, and on various occasions throughout history peat diggers have come across bog bodies. Records of such finds go back as far as the 17th century, and in 1640 a bog body was discovered at Shalkholz Fen in Holstein, Germany, which was possibly the first ever such discovery to be recorded. The first more fully documented account of a bog body being discovered was at a peat bog on Drumkeragh Mountain in County Down, Ireland, and which was written up by Lady Moira, the wife of the local landowner. Such reports continued into the 18th century, for instance a body was reportedly found on the Danish island of Fyn in 1773, whilst the Kibbelgaarn body was discovered in the Netherlands in 1791. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, when such bodies were discovered, they were often removed from the bogs and given a Christian burial on consecrated church ground in keeping with the religious beliefs of the community who found them, who often assumed them to be relatively modern.

It was with the rise of antiquarianism that some people began to speculate that many of these bog bodies were not recent murder victims but were ancient in origin. In 1843, at Corselitze on Falster in Denmark, a bog body unusually buried with ornaments (seven glass beads and a bronze pin) was unearthed and subsequently given a Christian burial, only to be dug up again on the orders of the Crown Prince Frederick, himself an antiquarian, who had it sent to the National Museum. According to the archaeologist P.V. Glob, it was "he, more than anyone else, [who] helped to arouse the wide interest in Danish antiquities" such as the bog bodies. In some cases the popular imagination took over from objective scientific study, as after the Haraldskær Woman was unearthed in Denmark, she was exhibited as having been the legendary Queen Gunhild of the early Mediaeval period. This view was disputed by the archaeologist J.J.A. Worsaae, who argued that it was Iron Age in origin, like most bog bodies. The first bog body to be photographed was the Iron Age Rendswühren Man, discovered in 1871, at the Heidmoor Fen, near Kiel in Germany. He was subsequently smoked as an early attempt at conservation and put on display in a museum.

With the rise of modern archaeology in the early 20th Century, the bog bodies began to be excavated and investigated more carefully and thoroughly.

File:Yde-girl face-reconstruction.jpg

Reconstruction of the Yde girl at Drents Museum in Assen

Archaeological techniques

Until the mid-20th century, it was not readily apparent at the time of discovery whether a body has been buried in a bog for years, decades, or centuries. However, modern forensic and medical technologies (such as radiocarbon dating) were developed that allowed researchers to more closely determine the age of the burial, the person's age at death, and other details. Scientists have been able to study their skin, reconstruct their appearance and even determine what their last meal was from their stomach contents. Their teeth also indicate their age at death and what type of food they ate throughout their lifetime.

X-ray is a very important step in uncovering the bog bodies as it can draw a picture of a body in the peat, which can then be removed without harming it by cutting blindly. Radio carbon dating is also very common as it accurately gives the date of the find, most usually from the Stone Age. In terms of determining the cause of death of the bodies, in a surprising number of cases, there are obvious signs of violence and murder. The Tollund Man, for example, had a rope knotted round his neck, and Windeby I had been staked down under the water.

Because the peat marsh preserves soft internal tissue, the stomach contents can be analyzed. These give a good picture of the diet of those people. Forensic facial reconstruction is one particularly impressive technique used in studying the bog bodies. Originally designed for identifying modern faces in crimes, this technique is a way of working out the facial features of a person by the shape of their skull. The face of one bog body, Yde Girl, was reconstructed in 1992 by Richard Neave of Manchester University using CT scans of her head. Yde Girl and her modern reconstruction are displayed at the Drents Museum in Assen. Such reconstructions have also been made of the heads of Lindow Man (British Museum, London, United Kingdom), Grauballe Man and Windeby I.

Notable bog bodies

Several bog bodies are notable for the high quality of their preservation and the substantial research by archaeologists and forensic scientists. These include:

• Bocksten Man, a modern body from 1290-1430 AD, found 1936 in Varberg Municipality, Sweden.
• Borremose Bodies, from 400-700 BCE, found 1940s in Himmerland, Denmark.
• Cladh Hallan mummies, from 1600-1300 BCE, found on the island of South Uist, Scotland.
• Clonycavan Man, from 392-201 BCE, found 2003 in County Meath, Ireland
• Girl of the Uchter Moor, found in 2000 in Uchte, Germany.
• Grauballe Man, from 290 BCE, found 1952 in Jutland, Denmark.
• Haraldskær Woman, from 490 BCE, found 1835 in Jutland, Denmark.
• Lindow Man, from 2 BC – 119 AD AD, found 1984 in Cheshire, England.
• Old Croghan Man, from 362-175 BCE, found in County Offaly, Ireland.
• Tollund Man, from 400 BCE, found 1950 in Jutland, Denmark.
• Windeby 1, found 1952 in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
• Yde Girl, 170 BC–AD 230, found 1897 near Yde, Netherlands.

Other bog bodies

Kayhausen Boy

The fur cape which bound the feet of the Kayhausen Boy

A bog body found in Saxony, Germany dating from 300-400 BC. The body was determined to be that of a male child, approximately seven years of age at the time of his death. His arms and feet were bound together with cloth and a cape. He had been stabbed several times in the neck. The boy may have suffered from an infected socket at the top of his femur, with the result that he wouldn't have been able to walk without assistance. Because of the high incidence of deformities among bog bodies, such as the Yde Girl, anthropologists have suggested that the disabled were sacrificed because they were considered unfavored by the gods.

Elling Woman

Reconstruction of the Elling Woman's hairstyle and cloak.

The Elling Woman is a bog body discovered in 1938 west of Silkeborg, Denmark. The Tollund Man was later discovered around 200 feet away, twelve years after the Elling Woman's discovery. She was discovered by Jens Zakariasson, who at first believed that her body was that of a drowned animal. She was found wrapped in a sheepskin cape with a leather cloak tied about her legs. She is believed to have been hanged, like the Tollund Man. Her year of death was dated to approximately 280 BC, also around the time of the Tollund Man; however, it is not possible to say whether or not both she and he were killed at exactly the same time. It also might have been impossible to tell the mummy's sex, if her hair had not been preserved. Her hair, which was 90 centimetres long, was braided and tied into a knot. Elling Woman is believed to have been a sacrifice. She had suffered from osteoporosis at an incredibly young age of 25–30.

Emmer-Erfscheidenveen Man

File:Emmer-Erfscheidenveen-man.jpg

Remains of the Emmer-Erfscheidenveen Man at Drents Museum in the Netherlands

Emmer-Erfscheidenveen Man was a bog body recovered in Drenthe, Netherlands in 1938. The remains, which were dated to approximately 1200 BC, were poorly preserved. The find was notable for the extent of preserved clothing which included a wool cap, deer skin shoes, a cow hide cape, and woolen undergarments.

Huldremose Woman

Huldremose Woman is the name of the bog body of an elderly Iron Age woman discovered in 1879 near Ramten, Jutland, Denmark. The body, found clothed in a wool skirt and two skin capes, dated between 160 BC and 340 AD. At the time of death, the woman was more than 40 years old—considered elderly for people of that time period. Her right arm was severed, but the injury was determined to have probably occurred by shovels during the unearthing. A wool cord tied her hair and enveloped her neck but forensic analysis found no indication of death by strangulation.

Neu Versen Man

The Neu Versen Man, also known as Roter Franz (Red Franz), was discovered in 1900 in the Boulanger Moor on the border of Germany and the Netherlands. He dates to 220-430 AD of the Roman Iron Age. The nickname of Red Franz derived from his red hair and beard. It was discovered that he was killed by having his throat slit, along with an arrow wound and a broken shoulder.

Osterby Head

The man from Osterby

The Osterby Head was discovered in 1948 in Osterby, Germany, when two peat cutters were working. They unearthed the head two feet below the surface, which was wrapped in a roedeer skin cape. Scientists from the Landesmuseum dated the man to be around 50–60 years of age when he was killed. The man was decapitated; no other part of his body was ever found. His hair was in the Suebian knot (also known as the Swabian knot) hairstyle. The man's hair had probably been a light blond color, but after being in the bog for a few thousand years, it turned a bright red. The knot dates back to around 2,000 years ago, where the Suebian knot was a common hair style. The Roman historian Tacitus described this style as typical of the Suebi tribe. The head is mainly a skull, but there is still a small amount of skin on it. The cause of the man's death was a blow to the left temple.

Stidsholtmose Head

The Stidsholtmose Head is that of a woman discovered in 1859. She was decapitated by a blow to the third and fourth vertebrae. Her hair is a dark red, which comes from the chemicals in peat bogs. Her hair had been tied into a knot, and fastened with a woven band, which was unfortunately destroyed. Her head was never scientifically dated, and the rest of her body was never found. Her hair was 20 inches long. She is also known as the Stidsholt Fen Woman. Her head is on display in the Copenhagen Museum in Denmark.

Rendswühren Fen Man

The Rendswühren Fen Man was found in Schleswig, Germany

The Rendswühren Fen Man was discovered in 1871, at the Heidmoor Fen, near Kiel in Germany.

"He is estimated to have been 40-50 years of age when he was battered to death, which left a triangular hole in his head. He was found naked, with a piece of leather on his left leg. A cape was found near him. He was otherwise preserved by smoking his body."

-Professor P.V. Glob

Textile typologically the clothing found with the body has been dated into the Roman Iron Age of the 1st or 2nd century AD which has been confirmed by a carbon-14 dating of parts of the remains.

Dätgan Man

The Dätgen Man

The Dätgan Man was found in 1959 near Dätgan, Germany. He had been decapitated, stabbed and beaten. His severed head was found 10 feet from his body. He is not believed to have been sacrificed, but to have been killed and then mutilated to prevent him from be coming a "wiedergänger", or zombie.

Husbäke Man

The Husbäke Man

The man was found in 1939, lying face down in the bog in Ammerland. He had eaten fish before his death (in the Roman period) according to analysis of his intestines. He was around 20 years old at the time of his death. His face was reconstructed to show what he may have looked like when he was alive.

Meenybradden woman

The Meenybradden woman is an Irish Bog body discovered in 1978. She was believed to be around 25–30 years old at her time of death. The Meenybradden woman's cloak has brought in a bit of controversy. The body was found out to be around 500 years older than the cloak that her remains were wrapped in.. Her body was buried about one meter deep into the bog. She was examined by Dr. John Harbison.

Gallagh Man

Gallagh Man was estimated to have died from 400-200 BC. The man was discovered lying on his side 9 feet below the surface of an Irish bog in 1821. A cape was found around his neck, which was most likely used to strangle him. Two wooden pegs fastened him to the ground which probably prevented him from becoming a wiedergänger. The body is on display in the National Museum of Ireland.

See also

• Mummy
• Natural mummification

References

• PBS, NOVA, "The Perfect Corpse"
• Peter Vilhelm Glob, 1969. The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved (Cornell University Press; reprinted 2004).
• Archaeological Institute of America, 1997. Archaeology: "Bodies of the Bogs"
• van der Sanden, Wijnand, 1996. Through Nature to Eternity: The Bog People of Northwest Europe (Museum Boymans van Beuningen). Accompaniment to his exhibition at Silkeborg, Denmark.
• Don Brothwell, 1997. The Bog Man and the Archaeology of People. (Harvard University Press) Original publisher, British Museums Publications, Ltd., London (1986) ISBN 0-7141-1384-0
• Tim Taylor, 2003. Buried Soul (Fourth Estate Ltd).
• Miranda Aldhouse Green, 2002. Dying for the Gods (Tempus Publishing).
• Wijnand van der Sanden, 1996. Through Nature to Eternity (Batavian Lion Int.).

External links

• Photographs of bog bodies at Science Photo Library