Bog body

This man or what is left of him, was discovered in 2003. His hair is still styled in the way he wore it during the last moments of his lif...

How can we be certain that Ireland’s bog bodies were the result of human sacrifice?

High-tech tools divulge new information about the mysterious and violent fates met by these corpses

It was only after the bones were declared very old and not the product of a mass murder that the 167 bodies found in a pond in Windover, Florida began to stir up excitement in the archeological world. Researchers from Florida State University came to the site, thinking some more Native American bones had been unearthed in the swamplands. They were guessing the bones were 500-600 years old. But then the bones were radiocarbon dated.

The woman from Huldremose

The Huldremose woman, 2nd century BC. Found in a peat turf at Huldremose in Denmark. She wore a skirt of wool, a scarf and two skin capes. The woman was more than 40 years old when she ended up in the bog. She was an old woman by Iron Age standards of life expectancy.

Elling Woman is the name given to a well-preserved bog body that was discovered in Denmark during the first half of the 20th century. By then, this type of remains had already been found in Denmark’s bogs for at least a century. For instance, one bog body, unearthed in 1835, was thought to have belonged to a legendary Viking queen from the 8th century AD by the name of Gundhilde.

Since at least the 18th century AD, there have been discoveries in northwestern continental Europe and Britain of “bog bodies” - human remains which have been preserved in the anoxic environment of bogs. These specimens are very well-preserved, with hair, skin, and clothing being retained in the process.

Tales from the Bog Hanged with a leather cord and cast into a Danish bog 2,300 years ago, Tollund Man was probably a sacrifice. Like other bodies found preserved in Europe's peat bogs, he poses haunting questions. By Karen E. Lange National Geographic Staff Photograph by Robert Clark The man—or what was left of him—emerged from the Irish sod one winter day in 2003, his hair still styled the way he wore it during his last moments alive. The back was cropped short; the top, eight inches long…