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Class Level and Curriculum Links
Junior Certificate History
Bog Bodies
Archaeological finds are often made in bogs by accident, when turf is being cut. It is the lack of oxygen in the waterlogged peat of bogs that slows down decay and ensures that finds made of materials such as leather, wood, bone and textiles survive in excellent condition. Among the most dramatic finds made in bogs are "bog bodies".
Many
bog bodies have been found in Denmark and Britain, some a few
thousand years old. Over 80 bog bodies have been discovered in
Ireland since 1750. Many of these bodies were never examined
in detail and most were reburied without study or were badly
damaged. The majority of the bodies date to late Medieval or
modern times although some date to the Iron Age.
The first time an opportunity arose to examine an Irish bog body in detail occurred in 1978 when a body was discovered in Meenybradden Bog, Co. Donegal.
Mysterious Burial of a Girl in Meenybradden
Bog, Co. Donegal
The body of a young girl aged between 25 and 30 years old was
discovered during hand turf cutting in Meenybradden Bog, near
Ardara, Co. Donegal in 1978. The naked body was wrapped in a
woollen cloak, of a style worn in the Middle Ages, which served
as a shroud. The body had been carefully placed in a grave that
was dug in the bog about 1m below the surface.
The body was examined by Dr John Harbison the Chief State Pathologist at the time in Ballyshannon Hospital. X-rays were taken and CAT scans were carried out to determine the state of the internal organs. The dental hospital took samples of the teeth for examination and tissue and hair samples were also examined. The body was in good condition, the upper half retained the skin. The short cropped hair, eyelids and eyelashes were well preserved. The stomach was not preserved. The cause of death still remains a mystery. No evidence of strangulation, poisoning, injury or possible death during childbirth could be found. A radiocarbon date acquired for a bone from the body was 1570 AD, an appropriate age for the style of dress worn.
If the cause of death is a mystery, so too is the reason why she was buried in the bog. It was a deliberate burial in the bog because it was so carefully done. The girl was lying on her back and orientated in an east-west direction. Perhaps the girl could not afford a decent burial in hallowed ground and she was secretly laid to rest in the bog. The body was sent to the Organics Conservation Laboratory in the British Museum for conservation by freeze-drying.
Iron Age Man Buried in Gallagh Bog,
Co. Galway
One body found in 1821 at Gallagh, near Castleblakeney, Co. Galway
was radiocarbon dated to 2,040 years old indicating that it belonged
to the Iron Age. The body of a man lay at a depth of 3m in the
bog. It was clothed in a deer skin cape which extended as far
as the knees. It lay on its left side, slightly flexed at the
waist and knees.
The cape was tied at the neck with a band of sally rods. At each side of the body was a wooden post or stake placed at an angle. Each post was about 2m long and pointed apparently with a hatchet. The body was reburied and dug up several times to show people and it was not until 1829 that it was finally removed from the bog and presented to the National Museum. It was not conserved at that time because the technology of freeze-drying which is used today had not been invented. The body was allowed to dry out, so that it has shrunk and the hair and stubbly beard have largely disappeared and only a few scraps of the cape survive. The presence of wooden stakes prove that this was a deliberate burial as this practice is known from Denmark, and is part of a ritual to pin the body firmly into the bog.
Some of these 'bog people' met their deaths in what may have been rather gruesome ritualistic killings. One such find is that of Lindow Man found in England in 1984. He had died as a result of two blows to the head possibly with an axe, was then garotted and finally had his throat slit!
The Gruesome Murder of Pete Marsh and his Discovery in an
English Bog
This bogman was discovered rather gruesomely by peat-cutters
on Lindow Moor near Wilmslow, Cheshire in 1984 when his severed
leg was found in a peat-shredding machine. The rest of the body
lay face down in the bog, distorted and flattened by the weight
of overlying peat. The discovery started what has been described
as 'one of the most exciting detective stories of modern times'.
The body was lifted in a block of peat and taken to the hospital mortuary at nearby Macclesfield, where the local coroner had to be satisfied that it was not that of a recent murder victim! In fact Lindow Man proved to be hard to date, since some type of contamination affected the body, but the surrounding peat dated to 300 BC i.e. Celtic or Iron Age.
Then the detective work really began. Lindow Man (called "Pete Marsh" by the staff of the British Museum) was studied in detail by scientists from universities and hospitals all over England. The vital clues they discovered are summarised below.
1. Head reconstructed from skull measurements, revealing bulging
brow, deep-set eyes
2. Crowns of molar teeth shorn off by impact of blows to skull
3. Reddish beard roughly cut before death
4. Fox-fur arm band
5. Closing of skull sutures reveals victim's age
6. Two adjoining scalp lacerations indicate use of heavy weapon
- probably an axe - to deliver blows from above and behind
7. Smooth hands, manicured fingernails
8. Pollen analysis shows Lindow Man was dropped face first into
water a metre deep - suggesting a symbolic drowning
9. Blood group 'O' identifies victim as a Celt
10. Fracture at base of skull caused by blunt instrument
11. Animal sinew garotte with triple knots
12. Slight deformations in spine indicate mild arthritis
13. Stomach contents reveal victim's last meal to be a burnt
bannock or griddle cake
14. Lower body sheared off during a previous peat extraction
15. Leg severed during peat-cutting reveals onset of mild osteo-arthritis
These clues enabled the researchers to produce the following description. Lindow Man was a well built fellow, in his mid twenties, some 5' 6" tall and 10 stone in weight. Since his finger nails were neatly rounded it was suggested that he might have been a chieftain or nobleman. He had short darkish hair, a short beard and moustache which electron microscopy showed had been trimmed by shears. A study of his gut contents showed he had eaten unleavened bread in the form of a griddle cake prepared (and partly burned) over an open fire. The cake was made from a mixture of cereals including wheat, oats, barley and possibly rye. Although the man seemed fairly healthy, he did not escape from the consequences of poor hygiene. His gut contained the eggs of two species of intestinal worm. The man's last meal was eaten in the vicinity of the bogland. Heather had been burned in the fire and there had been tiny pieces of moss in his drinking water. Pollen trapped in the bog showed that there had been extensive clearance for agriculture in the area before Lindow Man's time.
The evidence clearly shows that Lindow man was murdered. He had been struck twice on the head, probably with a narrow axe, a thong tightened on his neck appeared to be a garotte and his neck was broken. He had been stripped naked, apart from a fox-fur armband and his throat had been slit, perhaps to bleed the victim, since the other injuries were enough to kill him. All this suggests that he had been a sacrifice, perhaps carried out by the Druids. This theory was reinforced by the presence of a small amount of mistletoe pollen in his gut - nothing was more sacred to the Druids than mistletoe.
Lindow Man was dropped into a shallow pool in the bog where he was discovered 2,000 years later. His skin had been naturally 'tanned' and so preserved, but the bones were badly decomposed. Once out of the bog the body would have shrunk rapidly, hardened and disintegrated but the British Museum solved this problem by using the freeze-drying method of conservation, so that now the remains of this famous bogman can be displayed for all the world to see.
Excercises
1. Look at the distribution map of the bog bodies found in Ireland.
Compare this with a peatland distribution map. In what type of
bog have most of the bodies been found. Why have so few bog bodies
been found in the southern part of Ireland?
2. Examine the histogram showing the number of reported bog body finds in Ireland. Can you relate the peaks and troughs in the graph to events you read about in history, or to population size, or mechanised peat development?
3. A body which appears to be quite ancient has been discovered in a bog in your locality. Describe how you would go about finding the approximate date of the burial.
4. What do the reports about Lindow Man and the Man from Gallagh Bog tell you about life during the Celtic or Iron Age period? Things to consider: How did people dress? What did they eat? How did they cook their food? What work did they do? What religion did they have? How did they die? How did they bury their dead? What kind of houses did they live in?
