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A ']], which aids in the preservation of bog bodies]] The preservation of bog bodies in peat bogs is a natural phenomenon, and not the result of human mummification processes. It is caused by the unique physical and biochemical composition of the bogs. Different types of bogs can affect the mummification process differently: raised bogs best preserve the corpses, whereas fens and transitional bogs tend to preserve harder tissues such as the skeleton rather than the soft tissue.

A limited number of bogs have the correct conditions for preservation of mammalian tissue. Most of these are located in colder climates 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.

[[Image:Röst Girl.jpon, and suggestions have been put forward that they were either human sacrifices or criminals executed for their socially deviant behaviour. An example of a Bronze Age bog body is Cashel Man, from 2000 BCE.

Iron Age

[[File:Windeby_I_upper-bodicance, and indeed, they placed into them votive offerings intended for the Other world, often of neck-rings, 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." 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. Explicit reference to the practice of drowning slaves who had washed the cult image of Nerthus and were subsequently ritually drowned in Tacitus' Germania XC, suggesting that the bog bodies were sacrificial victims may be contrasted with a setes is loosely consolidated, and much wetter than in European bogs. As a result, the skeletons are well preserved, but skin and most internal organs have not been preserved. An exception is that preserved brains have been found in nearly 100 skulls at Windover Archaeological Site and in one of several burials at Little Salt Spring. Textiles were also preserved with some of the burials, the oldest known textiles in Florida.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). 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 that they were relatively modern.

With the rise of antiquarianism in the 19th century, some people began to speculate that many of the 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. By order of the Crown Prince Frederick, who was an antiquarian, the body was dug up again and sent to the National Museum of Denmark. According to the archaeologist P.V. Glob, it was "he, more than anyone else, helped to arouse the wide interest in Danish antiquities" such as the bog bodies.

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 the body was Iron Age in origin, like most bog bodies, and predated any historical persons by at least 500 years. The first bog body that was photographed was the Iron Age Rendswühren Man, discovered in 1871, at the Heidmoor Fen, near Kiel in Germany. His body 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, archeologists began to excavate and investigate bog bodies more carefully and thoroughly.

Archaeological techniques

Until the mid-20th century, it was not readily apparent at the time of discovery whether a body had been buried in a bog for years, decades, or centuries. But, modern forensic and medical technologies (such as radiocarbon dating) have been developed that allow 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 the skin of the bog bodies, reconstruct their appearance and even determine what their last meal was from their stomach contents, since peat marsh preserves soft internal tissue. Their teeth also indicate their age at death and what type of food they ate throughout their lifetime. Subsurface radar can be used by archaeologists to detect bodies and artifacts beneath the bog surface before cutting into the peat. Radiocarbon dating is also common as it accurately gives the date of the find, most usually from the Iron Age.

Forensic facial reconstruction is one particularly impressive technique used in studying the bog bodies. Originally designed for identifying modern faces in crime investigations, 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, Girl of the Uchter Moor, Clonycavan Man, Roter Franz and Windeby I.

Notable bog bodies

Hundreds of bog bodies have been recovered and studied. The bodies have been most commonly found in the Northern European countries of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland. In 1965, the German scientist Alfred Dieck catalogued more than 1,850 bog bodies, but later scholarship revealed much of the Dieck's work was erroneous, and an exact number of discovered bodies is unknown.

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 to 1430 CE, found in 1936 in Varberg, Sweden.
• Borremose Bodies, from 400–700 BCE, found in the 1940s in Himmerland, Denmark.
• Cashel Man, from 2000 BCE, discovered in 2011 in County Laois, Ireland. It is the oldest fleshed bog body in the world.
• Cladh Hallan mummies, from 1600 to 1300 BCE, found on the island of South Uist, Scotland.
• Clonycavan Man, from 392–201 BCE, found in 2003 in County Meath, Ireland
• Girl of the Uchter Moor, from between 764 and 515 BCE, found in 2000 in Uchte, Germany.
• Grauballe Man, from 290 BCE, found in 1952 in Jutland, Denmark.
• Haraldskær Woman, from 490 BCE, found in 1835 in Jutland, Denmark.
• Lindow Man, from 2 BCE–119 CE, found in 1984 in Cheshire, England.
• Old Croghan Man, from 362–175 BCE, found in 2003 County Offaly, Ireland.
• Tollund Man, from 400 BCE, found in 1950 in Jutland, Denmark.
• Weerdinge Men, from 160–220 BCE, found in 1904 in Drenthe, Netherlands.
• Windeby I, from 41 BCE and 118 CE, found in 1952 in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
• Yde Girl, 170 BCE–230 CE, found in 1897 near Yde, Netherlands.

See also

• Bog butter

References

Footnotes

1. Cite error: The named reference Fischer 237 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Fischer 1998. p. 238.
3. Dente, Jenny (2005). Bog Bodies: Reluctant Time Travelers. El Paso: University of Texas.
4. Silkeborg Museum {{cite web |url=http://www.tollundman.dk/bevaring-i-mosen.asp |title=The Tollund Man – Preservation in the bog |format= |work=Silkeborg Museum and Am009. 63. Print.
5. Hajo Hayen: Die Moorleiche aus Husbäke 1931. In: Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Nordwestdeutschland. 2, 1979, ISSN 0170-5776, S. 48–55.
6. Cite error: The named reference Bennike 29 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ Hart, Edward, dir. "Ghosts of Murdered Kings." NOVA. Prod. Edward Hart and Dan McCabe. PBS. 29 Jan. 2014. Television.
8. Glob, Peter Vilhelm (1969). The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved. London: Faber and Faber. p. 136.
9. Vergano, Dan. "Bog bodies baffle scientists." USA Today. Ed. John Hillkirk. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. .
10. Glob, Peter Vilhelm (1969). The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved. London: Faber and Faber. p. 103.
11. Glob, Peter Vilhelm (1969). The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved. London: Faber and Faber. pp. 65–66.
12. Glob, Peter Vilhelm (1969). The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved. London: Faber and Faber. p. 63.
13. Glob, Peter Vilhelm (1969). The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved. London: Faber and Faber. pp. 68–69.
14. Glob, Peter Vilhelm (1969). The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved. London: Faber and Faber. pp. 69–73.
15. Glob, Peter Vilhelm (1969). The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved. London: Faber and Faber. pp. 106–107.
16. Chippindale, Christopher (27 June 1985). "Flag Fen: New Finds from the Bronze Age". New Scientist (1462): 39–43.
17. "Reconstructions." Archaeology Magazine. Archaeological Institute of America, 1997. Archaeology Magazine. Web. 7 October 2011.
18. Deem, James M. "Clonycavan Man." Mummytombs.com. N.p., 2011. Web. 7 October 2011. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
19. Lange, Karen E. (2007). "Tales From the Bog". National Geographic (September 2007).
20. Van Der Sanden, Wijnand; Eisenbess, Sabine (2006). "Imaginary People". Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt. 36 (1): 111–122. ISSN 0342-734X.
21. Mike Dash, "The bodies in the bogs." A Blast From the Past, 4 September 2016.

Bibliography

• Bennike, Pia (1999), "The Early Neolithic Danish bog finds: a strange group of people!", Bog Bodies, Sacred Sites and Wetland Archaeology, University of Exeter, pp. 27–32
• Briggs, C. S. (1995), "Did They Fall or Were They Pushed? Some Unresolved Questions about Bog Bodies", Bog Bodies: New Discoveries and New Perspectives, British Museum Press, pp. 168–182, ISBN 0-7141-2305-6
• Fischer, Christian (1998), "Bog bodies of Denmark and north-west Europe", Mummies, Disease & Ancient Cultures (second edition), Cambridge University Press, pp. 237–262, ISBN 0-521-58954-1
• Glob, P.V. (1969), The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved, Faber and Faber
• Van der Sanden, Winand (1996), Through Nature to Eternity: The Bog Bodies of Northwest Europe, Batavian Lion International, ISBN 90-6707-418-7

External links

• PBS, NOVA, "The Perfect Corpse" Published 1988–2011. PBS
• Glob, Peter Vilhelm (1969). The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved. London: Faber and Faber.
• Archaeological Institute of America, 1997. Archaeology: "Bodies of the Bogs"
• van der Sanden, Wijnand (1996). Through Nature to Eternity – The Bog Bodies of Northwest Europe. Amsterdam: Batavian Lion International. ISBN 90-6707-418-7.
• Brothwell, Don (1997). The Bog Man and the Archaeology of People. London: British Museums Publications. ISBN 0-7141-1384-0.
• Taylor, Tim (2003). The buried soul: how humans invented death. London: Fourth Estate. ISBN 1-85702-699-3.
• Aldhouse-Green, Miranda (2002). Dying for the gods: human sacrifice in Iron Age & Roman Europe. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-1940-4.

• Archaeology of death
• Bog bodies
• European archaeology
• Germanic paganism
• Mummies
• Archaeology of Germany
• Scandinavian archaeology
• Human sacrifice