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Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
 Posted: 02-02-2005 16:53 Post subject: Bog bodies |
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Inspired by the Bog Bodies exhibition:
www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20131
I thought it worth starting a thread on this.
Obviously required reading is P.V. Glob's "The Bog People" (my copy is in easy reach).
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| Quote: | On tour: bog man murdered 1,800 years ago
By Ian Herbert, North of England Correspondent
01 February 2005
Judging by the terrified look on his face, the German horseman who has come to be known as "Red Franz" harboured few hopes of 21st-century fame in the moments before he was murdered and deposited in a bog 1,800 years ago. But after a world tour which has already introduced him to half a million people, he arrived in Manchester yesterday in an exhibition which sheds light on the fate which befell him and many others.
Red Franz - who takes his name from the colour his hair turned to after thousands of years in bog water - was joined by other "Bog People", including the Dutch "Girl from Yde" and a pair whose dying embrace earned them the name "the married couple".
Undiscovered until peat-cutters chanced upon them 100 or so years ago, each has been well preserved by the acidity and absence of oxygen afforded by the bogs of northern Europe.
The first international exhibition to bring them together - The Mysterious Bog People - reveals that they shared much more than a resting place. Recent scientific analysis of their bodies suggests that all were subjected to violent deaths and may have been consigned to the bog as sacrificesor as punishment killings. Red Franz, whose long hair was blond when he perished, was stabbed through the shoulder and had his throat cut at the age of 25 - somewhere between AD200 and AD400.
Manchester is used to such artefacts, since the discovery at nearby Wilmslow of Britain's most famous bog body, "Lindow Man", 21 years ago. He was a young adult who had fallen victim to a brutal act of violence in the first century AD. For years, many thought the body (still known locally as "Lindow Pete") was a recent murder victim. This seemed to be a common assumption when a bog person surfaced. The exhibition reveals how many bodies were so well preserved that peat-cutters took them to local police, who could not identify them and arranged for them to be reburied. Red Franz was interred in a cemetery at Hanover, Germany, in 1900 before a local museum realised his value and dug him up again five months later.
The exhibition, which introduces visitors to the bog people via a virtual walk through high-banked peat-cutters' channels, draws on 400 exhibits to support the view that the bogs were carefully selected as places for spiritual sacrifices by people who associated its water with the next world.
From the Mesolithic period (10,000-50,000BC) up to Roman times, people often placed their most precious posessions in the bogs - from amber necklaces to leather-sheathed daggers, elk bones, harpoons and even an entire wooden temple. |
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| HelzAngel Great Old One Joined: 20 Jan 2005 Total posts: 186 Location: Cheshire/ Derbyshire Border Age: 42 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 03-02-2005 16:52 Post subject: |
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| When I was young, a friends father was part of the murder investigation of lindow man. Some of the language we learned when he found out it was thousand of years old was fascinating |
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| Kondoru Unfeathered Biped Joined: 05 Dec 2003 Total posts: 5719 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 04-02-2005 17:34 Post subject: |
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Aww, what a spoilsport.
I have P V Globs book, its fastinating.
There is also a bog people chapter in Howard Reids `In search of the Immortals` |
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| Spookdaddy Cuckoo Joined: 24 May 2006 Total posts: 3834 Location: Midwich Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 04-02-2005 18:37 Post subject: |
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| There is some interesting stuff on bog-bodies in Timothy Taylor's book The Buried Soul - How Humans Invented Death. Actually it's full of material that would be interesting to Forteans - recommended. |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 14-01-2006 02:18 Post subject: |
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Timewatch brings us a look at the bog bodies:
| Quote: | Meet the Bog Bodies
Friday 20 January, 9pm
The new series begins with a murder inquiry set in an ancient European ritual killing site. Prepare yourself for one of the most remarkable Timewatch programmes ever made. |
www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/timewatch/ |
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| Kondoru Unfeathered Biped Joined: 05 Dec 2003 Total posts: 5719 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 14-01-2006 22:52 Post subject: |
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so in order to sell it to the punters an archalogical excavation must now be turned into a murder enquiry?
<shrugs> |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 21-01-2006 01:17 Post subject: |
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| Well that was excellent - why can't all documentaries be like this?? |
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| lordboreal Grey Joined: 23 Oct 2005 Total posts: 24 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 21-01-2006 03:13 Post subject: |
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I've seen pics of bog bodies before, but the hands on one of the bodies shown in tonights prog were amazing, even to the point where the ridges were preserved.
I was in a channel hopping mood tonight, but I'm glad I stuck the course with this one. |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 21-01-2006 04:31 Post subject: |
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| lordboreal wrote: | | I've seen pics of bog bodies before, but the hands on one of the bodies shown in tonights prog were amazing, even to the point where the ridges were preserved. |
Yeah I saw some pretty good examples at the exhibition (mentioned earlier) but it was just scary they just looked fresh - it was a bit jarring when the camera pulls back and they are attached to a leathery headless torso (I'm sure there is a Robert Kilroy Silk joke in there). |
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| mrpoultice Wandering the fens..looking at the moon
Fenlander Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Total posts: 368 |
| Posted: 21-01-2006 11:13 Post subject: TIMEWATCH: Bog bodies |
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Gah...
No body recorded it did they? I would happily part with a (reasonable) sum of money for a copy. (VHS or dvd). PM me (or email in Profile).
Mr P |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
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| TheQuixote Joined: 25 Sep 2003 Total posts: 4085 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 22-01-2006 00:44 Post subject: |
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Too late now MrPoultice, but it was repeated this afternoon on BBC2! 
The preservation on the headless body was absolutely amazing. |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 23-01-2006 22:05 Post subject: |
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Article:
| Quote: | 'These were horrific torture techniques'
By Isabella Mulhall
National Museum of Ireland
They were stunning finds: two Iron Age "bog bodies" found in the Republic of Ireland. All the evidence points to the individuals being the victims of a ritual sacrifice. Isabella Mulhall, who coordinated the project to investigate the remains, explains how her team went about its work.
In 2003, I was given the role of looking after peatland archaeology at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. I had only been in the role for a few weeks when the first of the bog bodies came to light, so I suppose I was thrown in at the deep end, so to speak.
It was a great surprise to everyone when Clonycavan Man was discovered, particularly to other specialists that had dealt with bog bodies whose discovery dated back to the 1950s and earlier.
The first thing we did was to secure the site in County Meath where the remains were found, making sure there were no other body parts. That process had just finished when the second bog body - Old Croghan Man - was found.
It was a great shock to find two so close in time and in space - they were found just 25 miles apart.
Our next step was to draw up a preliminary list of specialists to join the group that would work on the remains. I did this by going through previous publications on previous bog bodies from Ireland, Britain and further afield.
I also attended scientific conferences, to try to persuade other experts to join our project.
People were very willing to lend their expertise and to refer us to other specialists. Without their help, the project would not have taken off as it did. Eventually, we built a team of about 35 people from six different countries to work on the remains.
During the first phase of the project, the team carried out extensive photography, and also drawing, recording and measuring of the remains; and making anatomical and pathological descriptions.
After that phase was complete, we carefully took samples from the bodies for analysis. We made sure that sampling was kept to an absolute minimum.
Those that we did take were used for radiocarbon dating and palaeodietary analysis, as well as analysis of the gut contents and hair, amongst other items.
We then carried out CT and MRI scans on Clonycavan Man and Old Croghan Man. CT scanning is very much like carrying out a virtual autopsy; you can examine the skeleton, the ligaments, the muscles and so forth.
Once the remains had been fully examined, they were conserved by treating them with polyethylene glycol and then freeze-drying them for several weeks.
Any samples taken after these processes will no longer be pure; so prior to these treatments, we bagged some fresh samples from the bodies which could be used for future research.
Bit by bit, our investigation was building a complete picture of these two men. We discovered the age of these individuals, and many insights into how they lived.
For example, we discovered that Clonycavan Man had his hair coated with a form of resin which acted as a hair gel. And he had a very full set of teeth.
We were able to establish the sequence of traumas the men experienced before they died.
Old Croghan Man was stabbed and had a secondary defence wound on his arm where he had tried to protect himself. He was decapitated following several blows to his neck, and his body was severed below the torso.
He has one hole in both his upper arms where a rope, or withy, was fed through to restrain him. That was a very poignant reminder of the torture he endured.
Clonycavan Man also had several types of trauma to his body. These levels of trauma before death are common to other bog bodies from north-western Europe.
These horrific torture techniques were sometimes meted out in combinations and go beyond what is necessary simply to kill the person.
Most of the bodies that have been found are in their 20s, though older and younger examples have been found. Many archaeologists have put forward theories about the ritual significance of these killings.
Mr Ned Kelly, keeper of Irish antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland, has put forward his own theory that these are sacrifices to the gods of fertility by kings to ensure a successful reign.
He has noted that these bodies - and artefacts - turn up on ancient boundaries.
There was obviously some great significance attached to these boundaries, whether they were political boundaries or associated with sovereignty or kinship rituals.
It gives us an insight into the kind of society in which these men lived.
Old Croghan Man and Clonycavan Man will be put on display for an exhibition called Kingship and Sacrifice which runs from May at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.
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The story of The Bog Bodies is also told in a Timewatch programme which will be shown on BBC Two at 2100GMT on Friday, 20 January.
Isabella Mulhall is Coordinator of the Bog Bodies Project, Irish Antiquities Division, National Museum of Ireland.
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Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4632296.stm
Published: 2006/01/20 16:26:37 GMT
© BBC MMVI |
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| Kondoru Unfeathered Biped Joined: 05 Dec 2003 Total posts: 5719 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 25-01-2006 23:38 Post subject: |
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Finding new Bog bodies is always a good thing.
Im wondering with advanced techniques, if it might not be possible to scan a peat bog to see whats buried in it? |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 11-04-2006 03:15 Post subject: |
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Although preservation isn't as good as usual this fits in here:
| Quote: | Scientists uncover secrets of 2,650 year old swamp girl
General Science : April 04, 2006
German scientists on Tuesday said a girl whose 2,650-year-old skeleton was found in a swamp in the east of the country had lived a short life marked by famine.
"Moora", as the skeleton has been dubbed, was only about 15 when she died, forensic scientists at the Hamburg-Eppendorf university clinic said, as they unveiled the results of months of research on the skeleton.
Studies of her teeth and bones showed that she was malnourished up to the age of 11, suggesting that there had been food shortages in the region where she lived.
"Moora" was found in a marshland in Germany's eastern Lower Saxony state in 2000.
Archeologists were surprised to discover a skeleton in a swamp, as the custom at the time when she lived was rather to cremate the dead.
"We still cannot say what happened to her, whether there was an accident or whether she was killed to punish her or perhaps as a sacrifice," said Klaus Pueschel, the head of the forensic science department at the university.
He said his team hoped to reconstruct the teenager's skull, face and body with the help of computer tomography but that this would take some time.
Police in 2000 initially found a part of the skeleton, and suspecting a crime, took it to the Hamburg-Eppendorf clinic.
In January 2005, the bones of a hand were found in the same place, sparking the interest of archaeologists who helped to unravel the mystery.
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© 2006 AFP |
www.physorg.com/news63369386.html |
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