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I'm a PhD student researching the role of the archaeological dead in contemporary British society. Think of this as a scrapbook of all the interesting links, snippets of information and random bits and bobs I come across pertaining to death, dying and the dead. Enjoy?!

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    Bog Bodies

    For centuries, the peat-cutting of bogs in northwestern Europe has turned up strangely preserved human remains, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that we realised these bodies actually date back to ancient times. Most date back to the Iron Age, around 800 BC to 200 AD, but some are from as recent as 1000 AD—and despite their age, the bodies retain their skin, internal organs, and even their clothes. This natural mummification is a result of the highly acidic chemistry of peat bogs, creating remarkable conditions for preservation. The acidic, low-temperature, oxygen-poor environment effectively immobilises bacteria activity and hinders decomposition—the pH level of the water is similar to vinegar, so it almost pickles the bodies. The process of preservation has been described as “slow-cooking”, as it severely tans the bodies to dark brown. However, when they’re exposed to normal atmosphere, they rapidly begin to decompose—many specimens have been lost this way. Some of these bodies may have ended up in the bogs by unluckily losing their way and falling in, but most show signs of trauma and torture, supporting the idea that they were execution victims or ritual human sacrifices who suffered violent deaths.

    (Image Credit: Robert Clark)

    (via dead-men-talking)

    "Frankenstein" Bog Mummies Discovered in Scotland

    archaeologicalnews:

    In a “eureka” moment worthy of Dr. Frankenstein, scientists have discovered that two 3,000-year-old Scottish “bog bodies” are actually made from the remains of six people.

    According to new isotopic dating and DNA experiments, the mummies—a male and a female—were assembled from various body…

    theossuary: This is what’s left of a man in his early twenties who lived in Ireland sometime between 362 and 175 B.C. He’s just a partial torso and arms, and from the span of the arms they know that he stood about 6 feet 6 inches: exceptionally tall for that time. (I’ll say. That’s exceptionally tall for today.) He’s known as Old Croghan Man, and he was found in 2003 near Croghan Hill, north of Daingean in Ireland’s County Offaly. Like all bog bodies, his real identity is unknown, but researchers have posited that he was a man of high status. His hands were well manicured, his last meal was wheat and buttermilk (possibly a ritual meal), and in the months leading up to his death he ate lots of meat. He wore a braided leather band and copper amulet around one bicep. Despite the comfortable life suggested by nice nails and meaty diet, Old Croghan Man did not die a nice death. From Archaeology:  He had a defensive wound on his upper left arm where he may have tried to protect himself, and had been bound by a hazel branches (withies) threaded through holes in his upper arms, stabbed in the chest, struck in the neck, decapitated, and cut in half.  I recently watched an episode of Nova from 2006 (The Perfect Corpse), which featured Old Croghan Man and Clonycavan Man, a bog body from around the same time period who was found near Dublin, also in 2003.  Eamonn P. Kelly of the National Museum of Ireland (where the bodies now reside) has some interesting theories about a number of Irish bog bodies, including these two. From Archaeology: Examining the details of both men’s lives and deaths has led Kelly to suggest a new way of looking at the meaning of eight well-preserved Irish bog bodies. “I believe these men were failed kings or failed candidates for kingship who were killed and placed in bogs that formed important tribal boundaries.” Both Clonycavan and Old Croghan men’s nipples were pinched and cut. “Sucking a king’s nipples was a gesture of submission in ancient Ireland,” says Kelly. “Cutting them would have made him incapable of kingship.” Image source: Photograph by Mark Healy, via Wikipedia.

    theossuary:

    This is what’s left of a man in his early twenties who lived in Ireland sometime between 362 and 175 B.C. He’s just a partial torso and arms, and from the span of the arms they know that he stood about 6 feet 6 inches: exceptionally tall for that time. (I’ll say. That’s exceptionally tall for today.)

    He’s known as Old Croghan Man, and he was found in 2003 near Croghan Hill, north of Daingean in Ireland’s County Offaly. Like all bog bodies, his real identity is unknown, but researchers have posited that he was a man of high status. His hands were well manicured, his last meal was wheat and buttermilk (possibly a ritual meal), and in the months leading up to his death he ate lots of meat. He wore a braided leather band and copper amulet around one bicep.

    Despite the comfortable life suggested by nice nails and meaty diet, Old Croghan Man did not die a nice death. From Archaeology: 

    He had a defensive wound on his upper left arm where he may have tried to protect himself, and had been bound by a hazel branches (withies) threaded through holes in his upper arms, stabbed in the chest, struck in the neck, decapitated, and cut in half. 

    I recently watched an episode of Nova from 2006 (The Perfect Corpse), which featured Old Croghan Man and Clonycavan Man, a bog body from around the same time period who was found near Dublin, also in 2003. 

    Eamonn P. Kelly of the National Museum of Ireland (where the bodies now reside) has some interesting theories about a number of Irish bog bodies, including these two. From Archaeology:

    Examining the details of both men’s lives and deaths has led Kelly to suggest a new way of looking at the meaning of eight well-preserved Irish bog bodies. “I believe these men were failed kings or failed candidates for kingship who were killed and placed in bogs that formed important tribal boundaries.” Both Clonycavan and Old Croghan men’s nipples were pinched and cut. “Sucking a king’s nipples was a gesture of submission in ancient Ireland,” says Kelly. “Cutting them would have made him incapable of kingship.”

    Image source: Photograph by Mark Healy, via Wikipedia.

    (via theolduvaigorge)

    theossuary: Rendswühren Man was found in 1871 near Kiel, Germany, and he lived sometime between 100 B.C. and 100 A.D. He was about 40-50 years old when he died. As I’ve mentioned before, bog bodies haven’t always met with the best treatment by their handlers. From Discover’s great 1997 article on bog bodies: Not surprisingly, few people who uncovered these corpses in the past recognized their true significance, and it was only by chance that a museum would learn of a fresh discovery. Tollund Man was preserved because one of the police officers summoned to the scene happened to be a board member of a local museum. But even when a museum did get hold of a body, researchers had no established protocol for preserving prehistoric corpses and often did a poor job. […] In truth, there was little incentive to do better, since researchers lacked the means of getting information out of corpses and were thus more interested in any vessels, jewelry, and other artifacts that might be found alongside them. Many of the early bog bodies were reburied in churchyards or shunted off into storage, where they soon dried out. Not until after World War II did researchers begin to preserve the bodies more carefully. Generally they used beeswax, rubbing the mummies’ leathery skin with the stuff to give them the look of a highly polished shoe.  Of course, Rendswühren Man was no exception. P.V. Glob writes The Bog People (via): This well preserved human body naturally aroused much interest and before being dispatched to Kiel it was exhibited on a farm cart in a nearby barn. During this period visitors helped themselves lavishly to souvenirs both from the body itself and from the clothing. The dead man became the first bog man to be photographed—being stood up on the tips of his toes for the purpose. Because no better methods of preservation were known at the time, he was smoked at the local butcher’s. Like a ham.  You’re welcome. (Image Source: Nova’s Perfect Corpse slideshow. Note this other, less louche view. Did museum visitors complain?)

    theossuary:

    Rendswühren Man was found in 1871 near Kiel, Germany, and he lived sometime between 100 B.C. and 100 A.D. He was about 40-50 years old when he died.

    As I’ve mentioned before, bog bodies haven’t always met with the best treatment by their handlers. From Discover’s great 1997 article on bog bodies:

    Not surprisingly, few people who uncovered these corpses in the past recognized their true significance, and it was only by chance that a museum would learn of a fresh discovery. Tollund Man was preserved because one of the police officers summoned to the scene happened to be a board member of a local museum. But even when a museum did get hold of a body, researchers had no established protocol for preserving prehistoric corpses and often did a poor job. […] In truth, there was little incentive to do better, since researchers lacked the means of getting information out of corpses and were thus more interested in any vessels, jewelry, and other artifacts that might be found alongside them. Many of the early bog bodies were reburied in churchyards or shunted off into storage, where they soon dried out. Not until after World War II did researchers begin to preserve the bodies more carefully. Generally they used beeswax, rubbing the mummies’ leathery skin with the stuff to give them the look of a highly polished shoe. 

    Of course, Rendswühren Man was no exception. P.V. Glob writes The Bog People (via):

    This well preserved human body naturally aroused much interest and before being dispatched to Kiel it was exhibited on a farm cart in a nearby barn. During this period visitors helped themselves lavishly to souvenirs both from the body itself and from the clothing. The dead man became the first bog man to be photographed—being stood up on the tips of his toes for the purpose.

    Because no better methods of preservation were known at the time, he was smoked at the local butcher’s. Like a ham. 

    You’re welcome.

    (Image Source: Nova’s Perfect Corpse slideshow. Note this other, less louche view. Did museum visitors complain?)

    (via theossuary)

    theossuary: Thought I’d get back to bog bodies again, folks. This is Haraldskær Woman. She was found in Denmark in 1835 and was one of the first bog bodies studied by archaeologists. Found on her back, she was naked (though a leather cape and some woollen clothes were laid on top of her), and she was pinned down by branches and wooden poles.  Some more gories from Wikipedia: The complete skin envelope and the internal organs were both intact. The body had a lancing wound to the knee joint area, where some object (possibly one of the sharp poles) penetrated to some depth. Her skin was deeply bronzed with a robust skin tone due to tannins in the peat, and all the body joints were preserved with overlying skin in a state as if she had died only recently. Doctors determined she had been about 50 years old when she died and in good health without signs of degenerative diseases (such as arthritis) which are typically found in human remains of that age. In 1979, doctors at Århus Hospital undertook a further forensic examination of the Haraldskær Woman. By this time, the body had desiccated, shrunken, and the skin was leathery, severely wrinkled and folded. A CT-scan of the cranium more accurately determined her age to be about 40 years old at the time of her death. The body height now measured only 1.33 m (4 ft 4 in) but doctors used the original 1835 descriptions to estimate she would have stood about 1.50 m (4 ft 11 in). In 2000, Lone Hvass of the Elsinore Museum, Miranda Aldhouse-Green of Cardiff University, and the Department of Forensic Science at the University of Århus performed a re-examination of the Haraldskær Woman. Forensic analysis revealed stomach contents of unhusked millet and blackberries. Her neck had a faint groove as if someone applied a rope for torture or strangulation. The scientists concluded bog acids caused the swelling of the knee joint and that the woman was probably already dead before the branches pinned her down. Because of her careful placement, and since cremation was the prevailing mode of interment during that period in Jutland, the examiners determined the Haraldskær Woman was a victim of ritual sacrifice. A case of mistaken identity was perhaps the best thing to ever happen to Haraldskær Woman (at least, in her postmortem life). When she was first discovered, she was believed to be the 10th-century Norwegian Queen Gunnhild, who (according to an Old Norse saga) was ordered bog-drowned by Danish King Harald Bluetooth. Soon after her discovery, Danish royalty had a sarcophagus crafted specifically to house her, and this V.I.P. treatment likely has contributed to her excellent state of preservation (minus some drying and shrinking) today, nearly 200 years after her discovery. (Later research revealed that Haraldskær Woman was not Gunnhild, but actually much older, living during the Iron Age in about 490 B.C.)  Not all bog bodies have been as lucky in their conservation. For instance, Tollund Man: he’s pretty much gone now, except for his head. Alas, poor Tollund Man. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons.

    theossuary:

    Thought I’d get back to bog bodies again, folks.

    This is Haraldskær Woman. She was found in Denmark in 1835 and was one of the first bog bodies studied by archaeologists. Found on her back, she was naked (though a leather cape and some woollen clothes were laid on top of her), and she was pinned down by branches and wooden poles. 

    Some more gories from Wikipedia:

    The complete skin envelope and the internal organs were both intact. The body had a lancing wound to the knee joint area, where some object (possibly one of the sharp poles) penetrated to some depth. Her skin was deeply bronzed with a robust skin tone due to tannins in the peat, and all the body joints were preserved with overlying skin in a state as if she had died only recently. Doctors determined she had been about 50 years old when she died and in good health without signs of degenerative diseases (such as arthritis) which are typically found in human remains of that age.

    In 1979, doctors at Århus Hospital undertook a further forensic examination of the Haraldskær Woman. By this time, the body had desiccated, shrunken, and the skin was leathery, severely wrinkled and folded. A CT-scan of the cranium more accurately determined her age to be about 40 years old at the time of her death. The body height now measured only 1.33 m (4 ft 4 in) but doctors used the original 1835 descriptions to estimate she would have stood about 1.50 m (4 ft 11 in).

    In 2000, Lone Hvass of the Elsinore Museum, Miranda Aldhouse-Green of Cardiff University, and the Department of Forensic Science at the University of Århus performed a re-examination of the Haraldskær Woman. Forensic analysis revealed stomach contents of unhusked millet and blackberries. Her neck had a faint groove as if someone applied a rope for torture or strangulation. The scientists concluded bog acids caused the swelling of the knee joint and that the woman was probably already dead before the branches pinned her down. Because of her careful placement, and since cremation was the prevailing mode of interment during that period in Jutland, the examiners determined the Haraldskær Woman was a victim of ritual sacrifice.

    A case of mistaken identity was perhaps the best thing to ever happen to Haraldskær Woman (at least, in her postmortem life). When she was first discovered, she was believed to be the 10th-century Norwegian Queen Gunnhild, who (according to an Old Norse saga) was ordered bog-drowned by Danish King Harald Bluetooth. Soon after her discovery, Danish royalty had a sarcophagus crafted specifically to house her, and this V.I.P. treatment likely has contributed to her excellent state of preservation (minus some drying and shrinking) today, nearly 200 years after her discovery. (Later research revealed that Haraldskær Woman was not Gunnhild, but actually much older, living during the Iron Age in about 490 B.C.) 

    Not all bog bodies have been as lucky in their conservation. For instance, Tollund Man: he’s pretty much gone now, except for his head. Alas, poor Tollund Man.

    Image Source: Wikimedia Commons.

    (Source: theossuary)

    Portrait of a Bog Man (Image: Robert Clark Institute) Like hundreds of other bodies found in Europe’s peat bogs, this man poses haunting questions. Who is he? And how did he die? The body was discovered on 6 May 1950 by a family from the village of Tollund who were digging for peat near Bjældskovdal, Denmark. They thought they had stumbled over a murder victim. In fact, the man dated from the 4th century BC - the Iron Age. Examination at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen revealed he was 30 to 40 years old. Archaeologist Peter Glob christened him “Tollund Man”. The braided leather noose seen around his neck was strong enough to suspend a grown man. The loose end, which is about 1 metre long, was found rolled up and had been cut with a knife. Tollund Man had been hanged. Yet he had been placed in the sleeping position, and his eyes and mouth had been closed after death - not what you would expect for a murder victim. This suggests he was sacrificed, says the Silkeborg Museum, where he now resides. A noose may not mean he was hanged, however. A British bog body, Lindow Man, was found with a thong made of finely twisted animal sinew, but Robert Connolly of the University of Liverpool argues that he died after being “beaten up” and that the cord was ornamental: marks were left on his neck as his body bloated. Bog bodies are well preserved, thanks to a bog’s acidic water, low temperatures, lack of oxygen and the presence of Sphagnum moss. “Preservation is mainly due to 5-keto-D-mannuronic acid derived from the Sphagnum moss,” says Connolly. “It is powerfully antimicrobial and preservative.” Even fingerprints can remain after millennia. Earlier this year, Günther Mull of the Institute for Dermatoglyphics in Hamburg, Germany, and colleagues took prints from the “Girl of the Uchter Moor”, found in German marshlands. The prints of the teenage girl, who died around 650 BC,reveal ulnar loops - still the most common fingerprint pattern seen in Europe.

    Portrait of a Bog Man

    (Image: Robert Clark Institute)

    Like hundreds of other bodies found in Europe’s peat bogs, this man poses haunting questions. Who is he? And how did he die?

    The body was discovered on 6 May 1950 by a family from the village of Tollund who were digging for peat near Bjældskovdal, Denmark. They thought they had stumbled over a murder victim. In fact, the man dated from the 4th century BC - the Iron Age. Examination at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen revealed he was 30 to 40 years old. Archaeologist Peter Glob christened him “Tollund Man”.

    The braided leather noose seen around his neck was strong enough to suspend a grown man. The loose end, which is about 1 metre long, was found rolled up and had been cut with a knife. Tollund Man had been hanged.

    Yet he had been placed in the sleeping position, and his eyes and mouth had been closed after death - not what you would expect for a murder victim. This suggests he was sacrificed, says the Silkeborg Museum, where he now resides.

    A noose may not mean he was hanged, however. A British bog body, Lindow Man, was found with a thong made of finely twisted animal sinew, but Robert Connolly of the University of Liverpool argues that he died after being “beaten up” and that the cord was ornamental: marks were left on his neck as his body bloated.

    Bog bodies are well preserved, thanks to a bog’s acidic water, low temperatures, lack of oxygen and the presence of Sphagnum moss. “Preservation is mainly due to 5-keto-D-mannuronic acid derived from the Sphagnum moss,” says Connolly. “It is powerfully antimicrobial and preservative.”

    Even fingerprints can remain after millennia. Earlier this year, Günther Mull of the Institute for Dermatoglyphics in Hamburg, Germany, and colleagues took prints from the “Girl of the Uchter Moor”, found in German marshlands. The prints of the teenage girl, who died around 650 BC,reveal ulnar loops - still the most common fingerprint pattern seen in Europe.