This is a list of
bog bodies
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 to between and the Second World War. Fischer 19 ...
in order of country in which they were first discovered. Bog bodies, or bog people, are the naturally
preserved corpses of humans and some animals recovered from
peat
Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...
bogs. The bodies have been most commonly found in the Northern European countries of Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Reports of bog bodies surfaced during the early 18th century.
In 1965, the German scientist
Alfred Dieck
Alfred Dieck (4 April 1906 in Schönebeck – 7 January 1989 in Bremen) was a German archaeologist internationally recognised for the scientific studies on bog bodies and bog finds. Since the early 1990s, the results of his scientific work have be ...
catalogued more than 1,850 bog bodies, but later scholarship revealed much of Dieck's work was erroneous. Hundreds of bog bodies have been recovered and studied,
although it is believed that only around 45 bog bodies remain intact today.
How to use this list
* There may be more than one name in the "name" category, which may also be used to show alternate spellings for names of the bog body.
* The location category shows the city or state in which the bog body was discovered, although some bog bodies are discovered on borders between countries.
* The
carbon-14
Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...
dating is used to determine an age range based on examination of the
half lives
Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ato ...
of carbon isotopes.
* The "sex" category describes whether the find was male, female or undetermined.
* The "description" category depicts examination details as well as physical characteristics of the body. Some sections may state ''Little is published about this find'', meaning that there is little or no sufficient information published about the bog body.
List
Denmark
Germany
Ireland
Netherlands
Poland
Sweden
Great Britain
Other locations
See also
*
Egtved Girl
The Egtved Girl (c. 1390–1370 BC) was a Nordic Bronze Age girl whose well-preserved remains were discovered outside Egtved, Denmark in 1921. Aged 16–18 at death, she was slim, tall, had short, blond hair and well-trimmed nails. He ...
, a barrow body in a coffin preserved by a bog
References
External links
Archaeology Magazine- Bodies of the bogJournal of Archaeological Science – Dating bog bodies by means of 14C-AMS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bog Bodies, List Of
Bog bodies
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 to between and the Second World War. Fischer 19 ...