Episode 27: Bog Bodies

How many more are down there???

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, I'm Shannon, and welcome to the They Hid What Podcast. On this podcast, I explore parts of history that have been kept hidden or swept under the rug. In this week's episode, I will be discussing fog bodies. Let's get into it. A bog is a cold weather swamp, and a bog body is a quote, human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. Most bog bodies have been recovered in northern parts of Europe, and some have been dated back to 8000 BCE. A few light reminders. When talking about dates in this episode, CE stands for Common Era, also called AD or After Death. BCE stands for before common era, also called before Christ. Each bog is different, as is any body of water. The different types of bogs can affect the mummification process differently. There are 11 types of bogs. I'm not going to get into every type right now, but let's break down a few. A fen is a type of wetland that is fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It's one of the main types of bogs. A fen is best at preserving the harder tissues like bone. So most bodies recovered from a fen are skeletal. A raised bog is fed exclusively from precipitation. Raised bogs are acidic and high in salt and have been found to be best preservers for bodies. Bogs are also low in oxygen, which further helps the preservation process. A lack of oxygen prevents decay. It's not as though you can pull out a fully formed 3,000-year-old human from a bog. The acidity and lack of oxygen is great at preserving the outside of the body, but the bones tend to be broken down by the acid. It's almost like pulling out a flattened human. The acidity isn't done there, though. It's also the reason why these bodies still have hair, nails, woolen, and leather clothes all intact. And this is all naturally occurring. Bogs do serve a purpose. Peat grows in bogs, and peatlands.org defines it as, quote, the surface organic layer of a soil that consists of partially decomposed organic matter derived mostly from plant material, which has accumulated under conditions of waterlogging, oxygen deficiency, high acidity, and nutrient deficiency. Different types of peat grow in different types of bogs. Peat is harvested and used as a fuel source, an alternative to firewood, and it's also used in planting. You can go to your hardware store's garden section and buy some peat discs to help your seeds get started. It's in the process of harvesting peat that the bog bodies have been discovered. There are a few theories or maybe reasons why so many bodies have been found in bogs. The bodies that are dated from the Iron Age were mostly found to have been killed and placed in the bog naked. Archaeologists believe that these people were killed and placed there as part of a human sacrifice. See, bogs were believed to be connected to another world. Others speculate that these bog bodies were criminals and outcasts and were thrown into the bog as was their custom. Only respected people would be buried or cremated. There is a list of over 150 bodies that have been found in bogs, but I am only going to get into a handful of them today. This woman's organs were all intact, and doctors were able to examine the contents of her stomach and found unhusked millet or seeds and blackberry. Haraldskare woman was found naked with a leather cape and wool clothes folded and laid on her abdomen, and at first was believed to be the Norwegian Queen Gunnhild. She was given a sarcophagus and elaborate burial at the Church of St. Nicholas in Weil. However, not everyone believed her to be a queen, and in 1977, carbon dating was done on her body and found that she did not live in the same time period as Queen Gunnhild. But she still lies in the Danish church to this day. Archaeologists and historians believe that the Haraldstaub woman was actually a religious sacrifice due to her nudity and internment in the bog, like we talked about earlier. The Verdinger couple was found on June 29, 1904. There were two figures, one large and one small. They were found with an arm of the larger body laying under the smaller body, and the two left hands were linked. The larger figure was stabbed in the left side of the chest, and his intestines were laying on top of his abdomen, implying disembowelment. The smaller person's death is unknown. The larger body was identified as male and the penis was still intact, and given the position and stature of the smaller body, that was identified as female. However, the smaller body had hair or stubble growing from their chin, indicating that the body is also male. It's speculated that these two men may have been sacrificed for being homosexual. I read an article about these two men, but I cannot find the author's name. But they wrote, quote, homosexuals would in fact have been perfect candidates for honorable sacrifice in the bogs. As liminal on the threshold between two spaces, beings themselves, who exhibit or even personify both culturally masculine and feminine traits, they would have been right at home in the bogs and marshes, which are sacred liminal spaces. Not land, not water, but something in between. A path to the other world. She was found wrapped in a wool cloak, is estimated to be about three years old, and is believed and is believed to have lived somewhere between 200 BCE and 80 CE. Her cloak was used to help determine what time period she was from, and she was possibly the youngest bog body ever found. Unfortunately, the rust girl no longer exists as she was destroyed during World War II. The Ealing woman was found in 1938 in Bliskoveld Bog near Silkborg, Denmark. A farmer was in the process of digging peat and thought he had found the remains of an animal. Police and archaeologists were called, and the body was stored in the National Museum of Copenhagen. An X-ray and dental exam was done in the 1970s, and she is believed to be about 25 years old and lived during the early Iron Age. A sliding knotted rope was found around this woman's neck, so it is reasonable to believe she died by hanging. She had very intricately braided hair, and women to this day will braid their hair just like it. Later on, the Museum Silkenborg was built around the Ealing Woman, and the next body we are going to talk about, the Toland Man. The Tolandman was found 200 feet away from the Ealing Woman in the Jetland Peninsula in 1950. The Toland Man is the best preserved bog body to be found and was believed to be sacrificed around 400 BCE at around 40 years old. Tolin Mand was found naked but wearing a cap, with his legs bent against his abdomen. His lips, nose, eyelids, eyebrows, wrinkles, stubble, and red hair were all perfectly preserved while only his hands and arms are skeletal. Tolin Mand was found with a braided leather rope around his neck, so he was also most likely killed by hanging. During the examination of his body, two scars were found on his foot, and it was determined that the bog had dyed his hair red. While he was hung, there is a belief that he was also a sacrifice. It's pointed out that his eyes and mouth were closed and that he was laid carefully in the bog. We of course will never know. The Grabel man was found on April 26, 1952, by a peat cutter. In reading about the Grabel man, I learned how these bodies were being dated, which I thought was interesting. There were a few methods used on him, such as pollen analysis samples from the bog to determine preservation, and radiocarbon dating of his liver, hair, and bones. He is the most examined bog body, and it has been determined that he died around his mid-30s in the early Iron Age. Grabel Mann was slit ear to ear and is believed to have been sacrificed to a fertility goddess after a bad harvest. Grabel Mann had a dark complexion with short hair, a blow to his left leg, which broke his shin bone, and was found naked and lying on his stomach. Lindau Man won, yes, the first one. His head was found in May 1983 in Cheshire, England. From this alone, he was believed to have died 2,000 years ago. In February 1987, another part of his body was found, followed by 70 more pieces. This is all we have, though. We then move on to Lindau Man II, and he has a more gruesome story. On August 1st, 1984, a peak cutter was working in the Cheshire countryside and saw what he thought was a piece of wood on the conveyor belt. The cutter threw this piece off the belt, but when it hit the ground and the dirt fell from it, he realized it was a human leg. Lindau Man II was believed to be 25 years old at the time of his death in 2 BCE to 119 CE. In June and September of 1988, parts of the buttocks and the left leg were found close to the spot where his body has been excavated. A lot was found out about this man. To start off, it's determined that he had done very little hard work or manual work because his fingernails were well manicured. Lindau Man II was struck twice in the head, received a blow to his back that broke a rib, he was possibly garotted, and then his neck was broken, which is what killed him. After death, his jugular vein was severed before he was placed in the bog. It's wild to me that this thousands-year-old body is in such good condition that the complete manner and cause of death can be determined, as well as finding out that he had eaten mistletoe. Yeed Girl was found in 1987 in the Netherlands and is believed to have been about 16 when she died, between 170 BCE and 230 CE. I don't know what this poor girl could have done, but she was strangled and stabbed before being placed in the bog in a wool cloak. A CAT scan later determined that she had scoliosis, so maybe she was a sacrifice as well. The old Crowhan man was found in 2003 in County Offleigh, Ireland. This man seemed to be wealthy during his time as he wore a leather armband and bronze amulet. And an examination of his manicured fingernails and his hair showed that he regularly ate meat, which was a luxury. The contents of his stomach, however, showed similar items to a ritual meal, that of cereals and buttermilk. He and another man, the Clonicaven man, were both found with their nipples cut off. In ancient Ireland, it said, that sucking a king's nipples was a gesture of submission, and that the brutal removal of their nipples, therefore, may be an indication that the two were either failed kings or failed candidates for kingship. Old Crocon man was strangled, stabbed in the chest, struck in the neck, decapitated, cut in half, and was bound by hazel branches that were threaded through holes in his arms. This man also showed defensive wounds on his upper left arm. The Clonicaven man was also struck on the head three times, hit in the chest with an axe, and was disemboweled. He was found in 2003 and was severed in half by a peat cutting machine. Archaeologists were able to reconstruct his body from the torso up. They found that his skull had been split open and the bridge of his nose was struck, likely by the same object. Scholars from the National Museum of Ireland examined his body and concluded that Clony Cavan Man's diet was rich in vegetables, and that he was killed in the summer or early fall when fresh produce would have been available. They were also interested in his hairstyle and the fact that it was held in place with a gel made from plant oil and pine resin. These ingredients were imported from France and Spain to Ireland, and the fact that this man had the gel in his hair would indicate that he may have been a traitor. Not like you're not on my side, but like I'll give you this if you give me that traitor. The most recent bog body to be found was in October 2023 in Bellegue County Derry, Ireland. It's a female between 17 and 22 years old from about 2,000 years ago. The body is headless and skeletal, though some soft tissue and a kidney remain. There were cut marks found on the neck which indicated that this woman died by decapitation. These remains are being held to be further studied. You can visit some of these bog bodies, including the Gra Belman, across Europe and the Netherlands. And as I said before, there's a list of over 150 ancient bodies that have been found in bogs, and who knows how many more are left to be discovered. This does lead me to something I would like your opinion on. I understand how exciting it is to find something like this and to want to learn everything we can about it. Same goes for ancient Egyptian mummies, but boiled down, aren't we desecrating the person and their final resting place? Because part of me thinks these studies can be disrespectful, while the other side of me wants to go and visit each one. So I don't know. What are your thoughts? Let me know and come back next week for more hidden history.