Mysterious Bog People from the past

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Mysterious Bog People from the past

• Who are Bog People?
• Preservation Process
• Pathology of Bog People
• Discoverys from the Iron Age
• Sacred places they remain
• Conclusion
• References

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Who really are Bog
People? Bogs of ancient times are mystical and
there are hundreds of them still remain through
out Northeastern Europe. It wasnt until peat
harvesting and land reclamation activities
started that people such as men, women, and
children had come to light at some point with in
the peat cutting activities through out Europe.
These were best known as bog bodies these
specific bodies showed a great amount of
variation through preservation. They are
well-preserved complete bodies that dated all the
way back from 8000 BC to early medieval period.
We still dont know for certain how or why theses
people were chosen for such a burial. Most
archeologists believe that these people were
unlucky. In fact, many believe that were relics
from sacrifices to celebrate military victories
or even people that were executed for punishment
for crimes.Main Page..

• Grauballe Man was found in 1952 in
  Nebelgård Mose, a small bog in Jutland,
• Denmark. (Forhistorisk Museum,
  Højbjerg, Denmark)

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The Perfect Corpse

Bog bodies are preserved human bodies found in
peat bogs. The exquisite preservation of these
corpses comes courtesy of some peculiar bog
chemistry. Bogs begin when moss dominates a
low-lying patch of land, making the soil become
waterlogged and acidic. Bacteria then have a
difficult time surviving in such environment and
therefore cant break down the dead moss and
other vegetation, which in its place, simply pile
up and become peat. Under certain conditions, the
acidity of the water, the cold temperature and
the lack of oxygen combine to tan the body's
skin. Skeletal preservation is very rare in these
bodies, as the acid in the soil is extremely
damaging to bone. Preserved corpses of humans
and animals have been discovered in bogs through
out Britain, Ireland, northern Germany, the
Netherlands and Denmark. It is not readily
apparent if a body has been buried in a bog for
years, decades, or even centuries. However,
during the 20th century, forensic and medical
technology was urbanized which allow researchers
to identify their age. Unlike a lot of ancient
human remains, these bodies have skin and
internal organs because, of the extraordinary
conditions through preservation. This makes
scientists able to study their skin, restructure
their appearance and even determine what their
last meal was by their stomach contents.
Main Page..
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Pathology of Bog People

• studies certainly do suggest that many of the
  victims were in poor health, although its
  unattainable to know how they compared with their
  fellow people. But, Almost all had intestinal
  worms, and many sustained broken bones for years
  before their death. Van der Sanden has identified
  a rare bone disease in a woman from the
  Netherlands. Her arms and legs were severely
  stunted, signs of a disorder called
  dyschondrosteosis. Its a very rare pathology,
  not seen these days, he says. Bog people also
  suffered from more common problems, like
  osteoporosis, arthritis, extra digits, scoliosis,
  rheumatism, and arrested growth. People stop
  growing as a result of malnutrition, and judging
  from the contents of the mummies intestines,
  their diet was anything but hearty. Researchers
  have probed their guts and discovered particles
  of grain, seeds, and weeds. Most of the victims
  consumed a meager last meal of thin gruel, made
  from barley, flax, and other weeds, apparently
  washed down with a few gulps of bog water and
  peat moss in their guts as well.
• More picture..

The skeleton of Gadevang Man was discovered in
1940, during peat cutting in a bog on Sealand in
Denmark. The man was aged 35 to 50 when he died,
sometime between 480 and 60 B.C. In the frontal
and left parietal bone of his skull is an almost
circular opening, a trepanation 1.2 inches in
diameter. Gadevang Man survived this operation,
as is clearly shown by the healed edges and the
bone regeneration (see the small tongue invading
the opening). (Antropologisk Laboratorium of
Denmark, Copenhagen)
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Pathologies
Yde girl suffered from a mild scoliosis,
abnormal curvature of the spine. The tissue of
her foot near her right big toe was found to be
swollen while the toe next to it appeared to be
calloused. This suggests that the weight of the
right half of her body rested disproportionally
heavily on these two toes. The girl probably had
a somewhat irregular gait, moving with her right
foot twisted slightly inwards. A CAT scan (see
photo) shows the girl's wedge-shaped vertebrae
and her upper jaw with an unerupted wisdom tooth.
She died a violent death sometime between 170
B.C. and A.D 230.
Main Page..
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Discoverys of the Mystical Bog People of the
Iron age

• 1.  Gallagh Man400-200 B.C.Found in County
  Galway, Ireland in 18212. 
• 2.Meenybraddan WomanA.D. 1500-1600Found in
  County Donegal, Ireland in 19783. 
• 3. Oldcroghan Man350-175 B.C.Found in County
  Offaly, Ireland in 20034. 
• 4.Lindow Man100 B.C.-A.D. 100Found near
  Manchester, England in 19845. 
• 5. Amcotts Moor WomanA.D. 200-400Found in
  Lincolnshire, England in 17476. 
• 6. Yde Girl 100 B.C.-A.D. 50Found in Drenthe,
  The Netherlands in 18977. 
• 7. Weerdinge Men100 B.C.-A.D. 50 Found in
  Drenthe, The Netherlands in 19048. 
• 8. Rendswühren Man100 B.C.-A.D. 100Found near
  Kiel, Germany in 18719. 
• 9. Osterby ManA.D. 1-100Found near Osterby,
  Germany in 194810. 
• 10. Windeby GirlA.D. 1-200Found near Windeby,
  Germany in 195211. 
• 11. Tollund Man 400-300 B.C.Found in Aarhus,
  Denmark in 195012. 
• 12.Grauballe Man100 B.C.-A.D. 100Found in
  Aarhus, Denmark in 1952

11.
2.
9.
5.
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• Meenybraddan WomanA.D. 1500-1600Found in County
  Donegal, Ireland in 1978The style of the woolen
  cloak in which she was wrapped dates this woman
  to the late 16th century, distinguishing her from
  the more common Iron Age bog bodies. She was in
  her late 20s or early 30s when she died. Given
  that she was interred in a peat bog, in what was
  likely an unconsecrated grave, she may have been
  a murder victim or a suicide.
• Back

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• Yde Girl 100 B.C.-A.D. 50Found in Drenthe, The
  Netherlands in 1897A small percentage of bog
  bodies are children. Yde Girl appears to have
  been strangled and stabbed at the age of 16. Some
  experts believe she was selected for sacrifice in
  part because of her awkward gait and curved spine
  (CT scans revealed she had scoliosis). Other CT
  scans, of her skull, aided the reconstruction of
  her face. Her long fair hair was preserved in the
  peat, but on half of her head it had been cut
  off. Other bog bodies also had their hair cut
  when they were killed.
• Back..

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• Osterby ManA.D. 1-100Found near Osterby,
  Germany in 1948Only his decapitated head was
  found, wrapped in a deerskin cape. He was likely
  killed by a blow to his left temple before he was
  decapitated. His hair, reddened by chemicals in
  the peat, is tied in an elaborate hairstyle
  called a Swabian knot. The Roman historian
  Tacitus, who lived in Osterby Man's era,
  describes the hairstyle as typical of the Suebi
  tribe of Germany.
• Back

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• Tollund Man 400-300 B.C.Found in Aarhus,
  Denmark in 1950He is renowned, even beloved, for
  the gentle expression on his impeccably preserved
  face. The noose around his neck makes clear that,
  like other Iron Age bog bodies, he was killed,
  but following the violent act he was carefully
  laid in a restful pose, like a sleeping child.
  Learn more about him in Tollund Man.
• BACK..

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Sacred Remains

• Their eyes were closed after death, and their
  bodies were gently arranged in graves. And bogs
  were clearly sacred places for Iron Age folk,
  acting as gateways to the supernatural world,
  where gifts could be presented to the gods. In
  other parts of Europe, weapons, swords, spears,
  silver vessels, and gold jewelry have been found
  in bogs. presumably they served as votive
  offerings. But researchers admittedly are puzzled
  by bodies that show signs of obvious abuse.
• Perhaps these abused people were indeed
  criminals, as some have suggested, but were
  sacrificed rather than executed. Maybe there was
  an unspoken practicality to the communitys
  rituals people who were considered to be of
  little use were taken to the bogs. They may have
  be criminals or even those who produce little
  food.
• artifacts tell the story of the people who
  lived near the bogs and their culture. This
  picture is of a This dugout canoe made of pine
  measures almost three meters in length, and was
  found in 1955 during construction of a motorway
  in a small bog near the Drents village of Posse
  (Netherlands). Radiocarbon-dated to 8500 B.C.,
  this Mesolithic vessel is the oldest known in the
  world.
• Main Page

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• This scientific second look at the bog people
  is far from over. As researchers analyze more
  bodies, patterns of ritual practices and other
  dimensions of Iron Age life may become clearer.
  Researchers are curious to know, for example, if
  any of the bog people were related, but they have
  been unable to extract any DNA from the bodies.
  It seems that the acidic bog water seems to have
  altered most of the genetic material. every
  detail that is uncovered makes the bog people
  seem somehow more familiar. No longer are they
  little-known, poorly understood barbarians from
  the pages of ancient Roman history. We can now
  picture the last minutes of these individuals
  lives.
• Main Page

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References

• Books
• Bog Bodies New Discoveries and New Perspectives
  y
• by Richard Turner and Robert Scaife. London
  British Museum Press, 1995.
• The Bog Man and the Archaeology of People
• by Don Brothwell. Cambridge Harvard University
  Press, 1987.
• Through Nature to Eternity The Bog Bodies of
  Northwest Europe
• by W. A. B. van der Sanden. Batavian Lion
  International, 1996.
• Websites
• http//www.bogpeople.org/bog_uk/index.html
• http//www.archaeology.org/online/features/bog/
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bog/iron-nf.html
• Main Page