Bog Blog

A blog about bogs and bodies found therein

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Why was the Lindow Man naked and what is “woad”?

Discovered in Cheshire in 1984, Lindow Man was discovered by a commercial peat harvester who at first mistook Lindow Man’s foot for a piece of wood. Through radiocarbon dating, scientists determined that the peat which surrounded Lindow Man formed around 300 BC, and the general consensus is that the body was placed in the bog between 1 BCE and 119 CE.

He was found naked except for an armband of fox-fur and a thong around his neck - slightly odd as many bog bodies discovered so far were clothed, and the naked ones are totes naked. So what’s with a fox-fur arm band? Anne Ross and Don Robins speculated in their book The Life and Death of a Druid Prince that the armband signified Lindow Man’s connection to a wealthy and aristocratic family of “Lovernios” which Ross and Robins tell us means “fox or “son of fox” but they are a bit weird and largely dismissed by every bog body person because they wrote an entire book (which is quite ambitious) that reads a lot like they made it up and then forced everything about Lindow Man to fit into their already constructed narrative but anyway, this is the most interesting theory since everyone else’s theory is more like “we don’t know why he has a fox-fur armband around his left arm”.

Don Brothwell (the biological advisor in the investigation of the Lindow Man so I guess pretty credible) considers the meaning of Lindow Man’s naked state in his book The Bog Man and the Archaeology of People:

“Was this an ancient mugging where even his clotes were of value and thus stolen? Taking into account all the other pre-Saxon bog bodies from Europe, this simple mugging analogy with out own times does not seem satisfactory.

To begin with, was there in fact any evidence of clothing? There were certainly no skin or textiles near the body, at least not in the remaining area of peat which could excavated carefully. Woollens would have preserved well and could not have been missed, and even fabrics made of plant fibres should have been stained but recognizable/ Might Lindow Man have been ‘wearing’ the thinnest of all body coverings, woad?”

What the hell is woad? Wikipedia helps us out. A little.

Woad is a flowering plant that looks a lot like one of the few wildflowers we get in Arizona. I guess you mill it (there’s a picture of guys milling woad) and then, you get a really pretty indigo dye that was widely used until the early 20th century.

Ok cool so Brothwell suggests that maybe Lindow Man was just painted blue?

Bog Bodies are so weird.

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Mystery of medieval child grave in Frankfurt - The Local

More than 20 years ago, archaeologists found two children buried deep under Frankfurt's cathedral – and two decades of research have left them with more questions than answers about the medieval history of Germany's financial capital.

I can’t even.

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Medieval Skeleton Found Dangling From the Roots of a Fallen Tree

After a violent storm ripped through the Irish town of Collooney, locals were shocked to discover the remains of a 1,000-year-old skeleton hanging from the roots of a fallen tree.

More fuel for creepy children’s book which is not suitable for children.

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Lil Baby

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“As global warming causes ice sheets and glaciers to retreat, it will be “very, very likely” that a well-preserved Neanderthal will one day emerge, says Hiebert, much like the 40,000-year-old baby mammoth found in Siberia.”

- “7 Ancient Mysteries Archaeologists Will Solve This Century” from National Geographic 

Read the full (and very engaging) article on the lil baby mammoth here.

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Bad Bog

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“Today, few of us would think of marshes and peat bogs as shrines or holy sites, but they are mysterious, treacherous places where black waters ooze noxious gases, threatening to suck us under if we put a foot wrong. Indeed, there is evidence that some people did precisely this, slipping into bogs never to be seen again. Bodies have been recovered with their arms stretched forward, hands grasping at heather or sticks as if trying to haul themselves out. In Russia in 1850, a woman who committed suicide was cast into a peat bog, and there are several cases of felons being thrown into bogs after execution. A medieval solider was found in a German bog. He had been hanged with two dogs strung up by their hind legs beside him. The man’s thighs and stomach had been badly bitten as the dogs tried to break free. Near Berlin, a wooden barrel was found in a bog Its inside was studded with nails which had pierces the man who lay within. Perhaps most gruesome of all, a man was found near Brandenburg who had been scalped and had the skin stripped from his back. In his hands, he clutched his own lips and ears. In 1955, the body of a German solider killed in the Second World War was recovered from a peat bog. His clothes had almost totally disintegrated, but his body was well preserved.

Peat bogs have been the recipients of human bodies throughout history, but there is a concentration between approximately 700 B and 200 AD, and these have come to be known as the ‘Bog People.’ They have been found in western Ireland, northwest England, Holland, Germany and especially Denmark. They share one stark common characteristic: they all seem to have been deliberately put to death.”

- Howard Reid, In Search of the Immortals: Mummies, Death and the Afterlife

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Marija Gimbutas, kicking ass.

“The use of the word civilization needs an explanation. Archaeologists and historians have assumed that civilization implies a hierarchical political and religious organization, warfare, a class stratification, and a complex division of labor. This pattern is indeed typical of androcratic (male-dominated) societies such as Indo-Europeans but does not apply to the gynocentric (mother/woman-centered) cultures...The civilization that flourished in Old Europe between 6500 and 3500 BC and in Crete until 1450 BC enjoyed a long period of uninterrupted peaceful living which produced artistic expressions of graceful beauty and refinement, demonstrating a higher quality of life than many andocratic, classed societies.

I reject the assumption that civilization refers only to andocratic warrior societies. The generative basis of any civilization lies in its degree of artistic creation, aesthetic achievements, nonmaterial values, and freedom which make life meaningful and enjoyable for all its citizens, as well as a balance of powers between the sexes. Neolithic Europe was ... a true civilization in the best meaning of the word. In the 5th and early 4th millennia BC, just before its demise in east-central Europe, Old Europeans had towns with a considerable concentration of population, temples several stories high, a sacred script, spacious houses of four or five rooms professional ceramicists, weavers, copper and old metallurgists, and other artisans producing a range of sophisticated goods. A flourishing network of trade routes existed that circulated items such as obsidian, shells, marble, copper, and salt over hundreds of kilometers”

from The Civilisation of the Goddess by Maija Gimbutas

“According to [Gimbutas], this civilization was based on a social order in which men and women had equal status. The religious life of Old Europe [during the New Stone Age] centered on the worship of a goddess who took many forms. The earth was revered as the embodiment of the goddess and death seen as a return to the womb of the earth/goddess. Tens of thousands of figurines and other representations of the goddess, along with highly ornate pottery, have been unearthed from the archaeological sites of Old Europe, thus giving us a very detailed picture of the artistic and religious traditions of these communities.”

from The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age by Richard Rudgley

Venus of Willendorf, made between 28,000 and 25,000 BCE.

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See what happens when you stop revering the ladies? Bad things.

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Prehistory, I love you.

Trying to learn me some more info on prehistory to get an understanding of the Iron age, when most bog bodies are found. Can’t find a book on prehistory to save my life. Here’s why:

“The way in which the human story as been written to date is so abridged and poorly edited that it has provided us with an account of ourselves which leaves out most of the contents of the early chapters. Despite the fact that prehistory makes up more than 95 per cent of our time on this planet, history, the remaining 5 per cent, makes up at least 95 per cent of most accounts of the human story. The prehistory of humankind is no mere prelude to history; history is rather a colourful and eventful afterword to the Stone Age.”

- from The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age by Richard Rudgley

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Lindow Man

“Truly Lindow Man had died a triple death, through the stunning and lethal blows of the axe, the crushing force of the garrote that choked him and then broke his neck, and the cold embrace of the pool that symbolically drowned him in the final stage. The stab wound to his neck had already been revealed as a precise incision, intended to drain the body of blood, rather than a killing stroke, and we had also noted the significance of the figure three: there were three knots in the sinew cord used in the garroting, just as in the fist phrase there were three axe blows to his head.

Since each mode of death offered him in turn to a different god, and he probably died at the feast of the mighty Celtic sun god Belenos, the importance of his death went far beyond the initial impression of macabre overkill. Why this special death was visited upon him or why he offered himself for, as seemed possible, we did not yet know, but already we began to suspect that such an extraordinary death and offering to the gods would not be made on a routine basis, nor with any randomly chosen aristocrat: this special death required a very special person.”

- from The Life and Death of a Druid Prince by Anne Ross and Don Robins

Reconstructed face of Lindow Man, found in Cheshire, Northwest England in 1984. He was in his mid-twenties when he was apparently ritually sacrificed; he was bludgeoned, strangled, stabbed in the throat, and then deposited into a bog between 2 BC and 119 AD. He was muscular but not a soldier as he suffered no scars from wounds. He was hardy but had manicured nails - a sign of aristocracy. He consumed small amounts of a biscuit marked with a charcoal smudge immediately before he was killed. The practice of selecting an individual from a group using a bag of biscuits, one of them marked, has a long tradition in Northern Europe.

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Lindow Man

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What is a “bog body?”

A bog body is a human body that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. Most bodies are found in Northern Europe and date between 8,000 BCE and WWII.

Bog bodies are generally unearthed through the process of peat harvesting.

Wikipedia lists 100 confirmed bog body findings, but the exact number of bog bodies found are difficult to determine. As they were discovered in the 16th - 18th centuries, many accounts exist but the bodies decomposed after they were uncovered. Additionally, they were often mistaken for recent murder victims and were then buried in cemeteries. Currently, there are 53 preserved specimens.

Because bogs rapidly accumulate peat, peat layers rot below the new layers and release humic acid, whose pH levels are similar to those found in vinegar. This process, combined with the anaerobic (oxygen-poor) conditions of bogs and bog water prevents microorganisms from initiating decomposition.

Bodies placed in bogs during the winter or the early spring at temperatures below 40 degrees prevents decomposition as bacteria responsible for decomposition cannot reproduce fast enough at this temperature.

Under the correct conditions, bogs are able to preserve skin, internal organs, hair, clothing, and leather items. If the stomach or intestines are preserved, scientists are able to identify the last meal eaten by the individual. If the skin is preserved, some bodies are even able to be fingerprinted.

The oldest known bog body is the Koelbjerg Woman who has been dated to the Mesolithic period, about 8,000 BCE. 

Many bog bodies dating to the Iron Age (1200 BCE - 700 CE) suffered violent deaths and were pinned to the bottom of bogs after their deaths using long stakes, suggesting that their death and disposal into bogs may have been sacrificial and/or ritualistic.

The Tollund Man, from the 4th century BCE. One of the best preserved bog bodies currently in existence. Forensic studies suggest that he was hanged. 

Photo source

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What makes the water in bogs acidic and oxygen-deficient?

In Northern Europe, evaporation is suppressed by lots of rain and cool weather, creating areas of waterlogged soils poor in oxygen. Without oxygen, the soil lacks bacteria and fungi - microorganisms responsible for breaking down plant material. Without these microorganisms to break down the plant material, plant material accumulates in the waterlogged area as peat.

Bogs collect water through rainfall and groundwater. Bog mosses (such as the sphagnum species) cause the acidity of the groundwater by absorbing the positive ions (calcium and magnesium) from rainwater, and releasing hydrogen ions into the water, thereby by causing high acidity levels in the water and soil. Acidic soil water deters most plant species as well as microorganisms. Without microorganisms, plant material accumulates at a high rate, forming peat. 

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Basic Bog

A bog is a wetland terrain covered by plants (generally moss) but without a forest. When the groundwater saturating the terrain is acidic and low in nutrients, peat can form. Peat forms when the gradual accumulation (about 1 millimeter per year) of decaying plant materials (sphagnum moss, in particular) are stopped from full decomposition by acidic and anaerobic conditions. The peat then creates wetter conditions, and the bog expands. 

Formed 12,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age by retreating glaciers, peat bogs occur in regions where winters are long and cold, and summers are short and mild - generally in the high altitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. 

Peat bogs are populated by varied and distinctive plant life:

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- Sphagnum moss can store 16-26 times as much water as their dry weight, whether living or dead. Peat accumulation from the inhibited decay of sphagnum moss creates suitable habitats for a variety of other plant life.

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- Ericaceous shrubs flourish in acidic and infertile conditions. Commonly known as the “heather family,” this flowering plant family has many members, including the cranberry, blueberry, and rhododendron.

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- Sedges (Cyperacaea) resemble grasses and rushes. Papyrus was made from sedges.

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- Drosera or “Sundews” are carnivorous plants.Their tentacles, covered in sweet secretions, attracts insects, who are then suffocated by the thick, gluey substance (mucilage) coating the leaf surface. Sundews flourish in areas with Sphagnum moss, as the moss absorbs the nutrients of the soil and renders it acidic, disallowing the growth of other plants that would otherwise dominate the area.

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- Sarracenia purpurea or “Pitcher Plants” drown their prey in their “pitchers” filled by rain water. 

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- Myrica gale or “Bog-myrtle” is a flowering shrub which has adapted to the nitrogen-poor soil of peat bogs with nitrogen-fixing actinobacteria.

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- Orchids are one of the largest families of family plants with colorful and fragrant blooms. Recent study suggests that orchids have been around for 100 million years.

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Photo Source: https://bblonder.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/a-bog-ecotone/

“There is something fundamentally contradictory about bogs. They are solid and soft, firm and malleable, wet and dry; they are deep, dark, and dangerous; but they are also mysterious, alluring, and seductive. Neither water nor land, bogs are liminal spaces, thresholds between surfaces and depths, ambiguous sites of origin. As landscapes of nocturnal obscurity they bring about spatial and temporal disorientation: here, one can easily get lost; here, time is eerily suspended; here, things can disappear as if 'frozen in time.' Bogs are unhomely homes for whomever is placed in them they are loci of paralysis, but also of explosive volatility. Steeped in such contradictory powers, they represent fuzzy morphologies, effortlessly co-opted by historical, cultural, and psychological anxieties. In sum, bogs are 'deeply' uncanny."

- from Bones in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination by Karin Sanders

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Book Review - Tollund Man: Gift to the Gods by Christian Fischer

Incredibly accessible, compared to most books published on bog bodies (which verge if not tip into dense scientific speak not easily penetrated by laymen). Details about the discovery of the body were interesting and added a new layer and even more humanity to the story of the bog bodies. Nicely structured chapters provide clear information to enhance understanding of the history and context of these bodies. Discussions on history of preservation of bodies (beginning in the 40s) and the difficulties not only in finding the correct process, but also maintaining records and preservation during WWII are interesting and rare to read. Another element that I have not yet come across is the reason for not displaying the bodies in the 30s and 40s when they were discovered, as they were “too macabre”. 

Besides that, new information is not really given, though the existing information is clearly grouped and explained. A great resource but not a good place to look for answers to the most pressing questions - what religions were practiced, were these bodies sacrifices, why were they placed in the bog.

Photographs are amazing, color, and offer a variety of perspectives.

From the back of the book: 

“On May 6, 1950, Viggo and Emil Højgaard from the small village of Tollund were cutting mud to find peat for their stove in the Bjældskovdal peat bog, 12 kilometers west of Silkeborg, Denmark. As they worked, one of their wives noticed in the peat layer a corpse so fresh that they believed they had discovered a recent murder victim, and after much deliberation they notified the police at Silkeborg. The police were baffled by the body, and in an attempt to identify the time of death, they brought in archaeology professor P.V. Glob. Upon initial examination, Glob suggested that the body was more than 2,000 years old, and most likely the victim of a sacrifice. This book, written by the director of the museum at which Tollund Man has resided since his discovery, presents the investigations into this enigmatic figure and tells the story of his life and death based upon the evidence of the archaeological record“

Find it on Amazon

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Photograph by Robert Clark, National Geographic

“Over 500 Iron Age bog bodies and skeletons dating to between 800 B.C. and A.D. 200 have been discovered in Denmark alone, with more unearthed in Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

Much of the bodies' skin, hair, clothes, and stomach contents have been remarkably well preserved, thanks to the acidic, oxygen-poor conditions of peat bogs, which are made up of accumulated layers of dead moss.”

- Excerpt from “Who Were the Ancient Bog Mummies? Surprising New Clues” from National Geographic by Christine Dell'Amore

Full article here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140718-bog-bodies-denmark-archaeology-science-iron-age/

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Naked except for

III

Something of his sad freedom As he rode the tumbril Should come to me, driving, Saying the names

Tollund, Grauballe, Nebelgard, Watching the pointing hands Of country people, Not knowing their tongue.

Out here in Jutland In the old man-killing parishes I will feel lost, Unhappy and at home.

From “The Tollund Man” by Seamus Heaney