Bog Body
A bog body is a human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. Such bodies, sometimes known as bog people, are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated between 8000 BC and the Second World War. The common factors of bog bodies are that they have been found in peat and are at least partially preserved. However, the actual levels of preservation vary widely, from immaculately preserved to mere skeletons.
Due to the unusual conditions of peat bogs – highly acidic water, low temperature, and a lack of oxygen – the soft tissue of bog bodies can be remarkably well-preserved in comparison to typical ancient human remains. The high levels of acidity can tan their skin and preserve internal organs, but inversely dissolve the calcium phosphate of bone. The natural protein keratin, present in skin, hair, nails, wool and leather, is resistant to the acidic conditions of peat bogs.
The oldest known bog body is the skeleton of Koelbjerg Man from Denmark, which has been dated to 8000 BC, during the Mesolithic period. The oldest fleshed bog body is that of Cashel Man, which dates to 2000 BC during the Bronze Age. The overwhelming majority of bog bodies – including examples such as Tollund Man, Grauballe Man and Lindow Man – date to the Iron Age and have been found in northwest Europe, particularly Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, Poland, and Ireland. Such Iron Age bog bodies show a number of similarities, such as violent deaths and a lack of clothing, leading many archaeologists to believe that they were killed and deposited in bogs as a part of a widespread cultural tradition of human sacrifice, or executed as criminals. Bogs may have historically been seen as liminal places positively connected to another world, which might welcome contaminating items otherwise dangerous to the living. More recent theories postulate that bog people were perceived as social outcasts or "witches", as legal hostages killed in anger over broken treaty arrangements, or as victims of an unusual deaths, eventually buried in bogs according to traditional customs.
The German scientist Alfred Dieck published a catalogue of more than 1,850 bog bodies that he had counted between 1939 and 1986, but most were unverified by documents or archaeological finds; a 2002 analysis of Dieck's work by German archaeologists concluded that much of his work was unreliable. Countering Dieck's supposed findings of more than 1,400 bog bodies, a more recent study finds the number of documented bog bodies to be closer to 122. The most recent bog bodies are those of soldiers killed in the wetlands of the Soviet Union during the Second World War.
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