Book review: the bodies in the bogs give up some of their fascinating secrets – but not all
Preserved for millennia in peat bogs, these Neolithic human remains are slowly yielding to modern scientific inquiry
by Miranda Aldhouse-Green (Thames & Hudson)
A rather grisly, yet fascinating, set of artifacts has appeared and reappeared over the past 200 years, one that brings us as close as we’re likely to get to knowing ancient peoples. Really close. Uncomfortably close, in some cases.
These remains are called collectively the “bog bodies”, and archaeology professor Miranda Aldhouse-Green selects a handful of well-researched bodies for Bog Bodies Uncovered. These are people we now know a lot about thanks to the intriguing CSI-like technology that has brought their lives into the light of the modern day.
The term “bog bodies” refers to the whole, well-preserved corpses that have been found in the watery peat bogs of northern Europe. Some of them were young adults; some adolescents. Most had a disability. All met horrible deaths between 500BC and AD200 And all look very nearly like they did the day they met their end. No oxygen can penetrate the bog, which halts decomposition. That, plus a chemical found in the moss peculiar to these bogs, keeps skin, hair, teeth and clothing intact.
