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Bog Body


LucidElement

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Who were the Bog people? and how did they preserve them so naturally? It's worth a read..

"Bog bodies, which are also known as bog people, are the naturally preserved human corpses found in the sphagnum bogs in Northern Europe. Unlike most ancient human remains, bog bodies have retained their skin and internal organs due to the unusual conditions of the surrounding area. These conditions include highly acidic water, low temperature, and a lack of oxygen, combining to preserve but severely tan their skin. Despite the fact that their skin is preserved, their bones are generally not, as the acid in the peat dissolves the calcium phosphate of bone."

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_people

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I've always been interested in the Bog People. Even since first grade. Is it weird to be interested by dead bodies? :mellow:

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This is an interesting subject. Due to this natural phenomena some discoveries have been made that further our understanding of the people of old. One that comes to mind is the discovery of a man with red hair. I believe that jump started an archeology adventure turning up swords shields, and a plethora of other day to day items used during that time.

Good stuff really, thanks for the post

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Thought I would add this. The red hair is presumed to have been from the acidic peat moss. Makes sense when a brunette wants to go blond and uses cheap chemicals the hair usually turns red/orange.

Anyways to add to this topic some more. Here is a link to other bog people found across europe.

http://www.museumstuff.com/learn/topics/Bog_burial::sub::Other_Bog_Bodies

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This is an interesting subject. Due to this natural phenomena some discoveries have been made that further our understanding of the people of old. One that comes to mind is the discovery of a man with red hair. I believe that jump started an archeology adventure turning up swords shields, and a plethora of other day to day items used during that time.

Good stuff really, thanks for the post

The study of swords, shields and the like got a large boost from the Gotland discoveries in the early 20th century of the Visby bodies.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.fairweather/docs/visby.htm

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Ya it seemed interesting enough... how exactly does one know where to look for a bog?

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Hello Lucid Element'

although I cannot quote a source,I did several years ago read an article about bog people in Florida,if anyone has any links to this it would be appreciated.thanks jmccr8

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Thank you HanLsune,

I find it very interesting that both brain tissue and stomach matter are still persent and available for diagnostic research,once again thanks jmccr8

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I don't understand what is so mysterious about these 'Bog people'.

People back then executed prisoners, offenders of the law, adulterers, and what have we, and after they executed them they threw them into some bog. Maybe these victimes were offerings to te gods.

The bog preserved their bodies, great.

And then what?

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Looking for more abe? Just the finding and the archeology benefits alone should be enough. I'm sorry you find it mundane. But it is interesting to me. At least it's worth learning about!

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I'm not sure about the bog bodies in Europe abe, but the bog in Florida was a cemetery.

Windover

I'm very interested in this topic as well. Finding preserved bodies that are 8,000 years old is amazing!

I'm curious as to how much research has actually been done on the bodies and what they've learned.

I'm going to see if I can find out more.

Thanks for posting this Lucid!!

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Egyptian mummies are more my thing but, damn, bog bodies are really something. Some are no more than the occasional body part while others are amazingly preserved.

Archaeology magazine recently ran a very interesting article on bog bodies: abstract here.

My favorite bog-body story is of a man near whose property one of these bodies had been found. As has often been the case, the body looked recently departed so the police were called in to investigate. Riddled with guilt, the man turned himself in to the authorities and admitted that the body they had found was his wife's, whom he had murdered and buried some time before. However, as it turned out, the body was very ancient and had nothing to do with the recently murdered woman. This man had buried his wife in a completely different location.

Justice from the grave! :devil: Perfect Halloween story. Come to think of it, a bog body would make for a dandy Halloween costume.

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Looking for more abe? Just the finding and the archeology benefits alone should be enough. I'm sorry you find it mundane. But it is interesting to me. At least it's worth learning about!

Aus, I didn't say it wasn't interesting, I just wondered about it being a 'mystery'.

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Gotcha abe I'm sorry to have misinterpreted!

:)

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Ya it seemed interesting enough... how exactly does one know where to look for a bog?

if you're walking in th woods, stop for a bit, then notice you're beginning to sink...

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  • 3 years later...

OK, found this topic on Bog Bodies cause I wanted to add something that might be an interesting connection. A lot of people apparently found this topic interesting but it didn't go far. While reading Tacitus Germania I noticed he wrote this:

In the assembly it is allowed to present accusations, and to prosecute capital offences. Punishments vary according to the quality of the crime. Traitors and deserters they hang upon trees. Cowards, and sluggards, and unnatural prostitutes they smother in mud and bogs under an heap of hurdles. Such diversity in their executions has this view, that in punishing of glaring iniquities, it behoves likewise to display them to sight; but effeminacy and pollution must be buried and concealed.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/tacitus-germanygord.asp

He's actually telling us why the people are put into the bogs - I never see this mentioned in Wiki or anything. Tollund Man could have been a coward with his passive face and many bodies are found under heaps of sticks (hurdles). The female bog bodies imo would probably be mainly prostitutes, he mentions again further on how this practice is seen as unacceptable in general to Germans and how laws of matrimony are severely observed, For, to a woman who has prostituted her person, no pardon is ever granted. However beautiful she be, however young, however abounding in wealth, a husband she can never find. In truth, nobody turns vices into mirth there..

Edited by The Puzzler
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Bog people have been interesting to me just because it gives us a glimpse of ancient peoples' day-to-day lives 9and death). What they ateand wore as well as roughly how they looked.

Ötzi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi seems different since he had so much gear and the great age. http://www.iceman.it/en/node/226

Has anyone else seen the Mummies of the World traveling exhibit? http://www.mummiesoftheworld.com/exhibition-preview/ My lovely wife and mother-in-law are mummy fans and drug me along. As a reenactor, I was impressed by the German Baron von Holz mummy buried in his new boots.

43442462_von%20holz1.jpg

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Bog people have been interesting to me just because it gives us a glimpse of ancient peoples' day-to-day lives 9and death). What they ateand wore as well as roughly how they looked.

Ötzi http://en.wikipedia....dash;tzi seems different since he had so much gear and the great age. http://www.iceman.it/en/node/226

Has anyone else seen the Mummies of the World traveling exhibit? http://www.mummiesoftheworld.com/exhibition-preview/ My lovely wife and mother-in-law are mummy fans and drug me along. As a reenactor, I was impressed by the German Baron von Holz mummy buried in his new boots.

43442462_von%20holz1.jpg

Ötzi isn't a bog mummy but a naturally desiccated, flash-frozen prehistoric man. He lived millennia before the bog-mummies.

But I share your interests in mummies. For me it's Egyptian mummies in particular, but mummies in general have a certain creepy appeal. At the Field Museum we have 40 Egyptian mummies and 50 Peruvian mummy bundles.

The exhibit you mentioned did not come to Chicago but was in a Milwaukee museum a couple of years ago. I kick myself to this day for not having seen it.

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But I share your interests in mummies. For me it's Egyptian mummies in particular, but mummies in general have a certain creepy appeal. At the Field Museum we have 40 Egyptian mummies and 50 Peruvian mummy bundles.

The exhibit you mentioned did not come to Chicago but was in a Milwaukee museum a couple of years ago. I kick myself to this day for not having seen it.

I went to the http://www.mummiesoftheworld.com/ under duress and still found it fascinating. They are in Buffalo, NY now.

I recall seeing several bog people or their markers while I was living in Germany but I do not see a comprehensive listing yet(?) http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/bog/ http://archive.archaeology.org/bog/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bog_People

The Puzzler made an excellent point that explains the conditions that many of the bog bodies were found in. It seemed strange to me that so many seemed to be "victims."

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Aw, man, that looks like an excellent exhibition. Now I'm really miffed at myself for missing it.

My favorite bog-mummy story was in an article in Archaeology magazine some years ago. I can't remember the country where it occurred by I think it was either Germany or France. A body was accidentally unearthed and, as sometimes happens with bog mummies, the immediate thought was that it was a murder victim. A local farmer learned of this and turned himself into the authorities, admitting to having murdered and buried his wife. The guilt was too much. But it turns out the body dated to the Early Iron Age and had nothing to do with the farmer or his murdered wife.

Now that's divine justice. :tu:

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