The Mummified Bog People

Image of the Tollund Man, the most well-preserved bog body

What is a Bog Body?

This mystery is more of a creepy one and involves human corpses and mummies. A bog body is a human corpse that has been mummified in a peat bog through natural and environmental elements present in the bog. It is caused by the unique physical and biochemical composition of the bogs. While it's difficult to exactly say how many bog bodies there are, the number is surely in the hundreds. These bodies, sometimes known as bog people, have been found all over the world as well as dating back to different periods, for example, some have been dated to around 8000 BCE while some near the Second World War. While there is such a level of differentiation between these bog bodies, the unifying factor among them is that they have all been found in peat bogs and preserved to a decent extent. Due to the effect of peat, these bog bodies are preserved in a very unique and different way, they often maintain their skin as well as internal organs in decent condition. The combination of highly acidic water, low temperature, and low levels of oxygen preserve the skin while tanning it to a severe extent. The bones of the corpse don't share the same fate as the calcium phosphate in them is dissolved by the bog's acidity.

These strange effects on different parts of the bog bodies leave them shrunken and in some instances, without any bone present at all. Most bog bodies have been found in the process of digging peat for commercial use, sometimes by mechanical excavators and due to this, they are quite often injured or deformed by accident. Due to this post-mortem trauma, the identification of these bodies becomes a very difficult task for forensic purposes. Modern forensic specialists have had to work hard to distinguish trauma inflicted on the bodies before death from the damage done to them when they were discovered. Along with this, the unusual preservation of the bog bodies poses an additional challenge because acids in bog water destroy DNA, making genetic tracing nearly impossible. One example of such a case is from Lindow Moss in 1983 when a body was found in a bog by the police. It was found just about a kilometre away from the cottage of a man who was the prime suspect in the case of his wife's disappearance When he was shown this evidence, the man plead guilty and confessed to murdering his wife. A few months later, it was discovered that the body was actually that of a two-thousand-year-old male. On the other hand, due to the great preservation of the soft tissue and organs like the stomach, many things such as the individual's final meals can be determined through testing. Some cases of bog bodies have even been analyzed and their last meal being bread and types of plants discovered.

While most of the scientific aspects of these bodies are already confirmed, the real mystery here is who these people were and why they were buried in such conditions all around the world. Something adding to this is that these bog bodies typically show several unnerving similarities, such as signs of torture and violent deaths, which has led to a train of thought believing that these bodies met a more sinister fate than previouslyassumed. As for the many cases of Bog Bodies, I've added a link at the end of the lecture to an article showing notable cases.

Theories

Unlike with most mysteries, there are only 2 real theories that are highly discussed and they are,

1. Supernatural Portal & Sacrifice Site in Bogs Theory

According to this theory, it is claimed that Europeans around 6,000 years ago considered bogs to be some sort of sinister supernatural portals. Ulla Mannering, an expert in ancient textiles from Denmark states that there was a proper cycle due to which this theory holds true. According to her, The bogs' peat was very valuable in less tree dense areas as it could be burned in place of wood, and it also contained an ore known as bog iron which was used to make tools. In those times, people believed that "when you take things, you also offer things," and taking from the bog may have seemed like taking from a deep and dark place. Due to this, the Danish people must have believed that offering things back would be a sort of payment for what they were taking and human sacrifices would be the perfect offering to whatever being they were sacrificing to. The problem with this is that there are no true written records of Danish culture and this would be the case for Denmark specifically but it does seem to link up with other places as well but in a slightly more sinister way.

In other places, it is believed that these "sacrifices" were people who were evil and usually murdered. One example would be the Tollund Man, which is a very famous bog body because of the exquisite condition of his face and head. He had been hung to death, and the noose that was used wasn't ever removed from around his neck which is a pretty gruesome way to die. Along with this, An unusual number of bog bodies have been found that suffered from physical deformities. These deformities ranged from minor things like curved spines or diseased joints which would have made walking difficult to more prominent abnormalities such as dwarfism, or having an extra set of thumbs. This has led to the suspicion that people who were visually deformed in some manner were sacrificed to the bog as possibly being "bad" or "evil" people.

2. Unrelated Coincidence Theory

In all honesty, this theory is not interesting at all. According to this, there is no real connection between the bog bodies across the world and it is just a coincidence that so many people have been found in bogs. This theory is, of course, possible but would be very hard to believe as the number of bog bodies is unknown and maybe in the thousands so putting them all to a coincidence is a stretch. This theory would also not explain the strange variety of injuries found on the bog bodies.

Conclusion

This whole mystery of bog bodies is very interesting as the scientific concepts of how bogs and the peat in them react with the man's body to preserve them in a visibly decent state is fascinating. Looking at the mystery, I personally believe both theories to be true due to the simple reasoning that there are so many of them. I believe that the first theory holds true for many cases, especially in older times when the belief of sacrificing to the gods would be more prominent and people had less knowledge than bogs were just creepy bodies f water. On the other hand, for more recent bog bodies found I believe that the chances of coincidences and people dying and being buried in bogs without any sacrificial thoughts is quite high. But this theory, just like many others, is one that we probably will never know the whole truth to. 

This article provides a great summary of some noteworthy bog bodies so you can check it out on the link - https://www.britannica.com/list/9-noteworthy-bog-bodies-and-what-they-tell-us

Thanks a lot for taking out the time to read my post and I hope you enjoyed it! For any future post suggestions or comments please feel free to contact me on any of our social media pages or leave a comment below!