Kayhausen Boy
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Kayhausen Boy
OR:
Kayhausen Boy on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

The Kayhausen Boy is a
mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay fu ...
, naturally preserved in a
sphagnum ''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, peat moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store wa ...
bog in
Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
, Germany. He is one of the few recorded bog children discovered.


Discovery and examination

The body, of a boy believed to have been approximately seven to ten years of age at the time of his death, was found in 1922. The boy is estimated to have died between 300 and 400 BCE.Archaeology.about.com
Archaeology.about.com (4 August 2010). Retrieved on 15 September 2011. His arms and feet were bound together with cloth torn from clothing and a fur
cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...
. Examination concluded that he had been stabbed three to four centimeters deep, three times in the neck and once on his left arm. It is thought that the wound on the boy's arm had happened when the boy may have raised his arm in an act of
self-defense Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in ...
towards his attacker. A recent examination of the body shows that the weapon used to kill the child was a dagger with a four centimeter blade.Madea, Burkhard, Johanna Preuss, and Frank Musshoff. "From Flourishing Life to Dust-The Natural Cycle." Mummies of the World. Ed. Alfried Wieczorek and
Wilfried Rosendahl Wilfried Rosendahl (born 1966) is a German bioarchaeologist, geoscientist, and cultural manager, general director of the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums in Mannheim, and honorary professor at the Institute of History at the University of Mannheim. ...
. First ed. 2010. 28. PrintArchaeology.org
Archaeology.org. Retrieved on 15 September 2011. A possible reason for the boy's demise is that he had suffered from an infected socket at the top of his
femur The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates with ...
, and hence would not have been able to walk without assistance. Because of the high incidence of deformities among bog bodies, such as the
Yde Girl Yde Girl () is a bog body found in the ''Stijfveen'' peat bog near the village of Yde, Netherlands. She was found on 12 May 1897 and was reputedly uncannily well-preserved when discovered (especially her hair), but by the time the body was turn ...
,
anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
s have suggested that the disabled were sacrificed because they were considered to be unfavored by their gods. The boy's body is preserved in a formalin solution and is not displayed.


See also

*
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 to between and the Second World War. Fischer 199 ...
*
Elling Woman The Elling Woman is a bog body discovered in 1938 west of Silkeborg, Denmark. The Tollund Man was later discovered just c. away, twelve years after the Elling Woman's discovery. The Elling Woman was mistakenly described as a man in Peter Glob, P. ...
*
Grauballe Man The Grauballe Man is a bog body that was uncovered in 1952 from a peat bog near the village of Grauballe in Jutland, Denmark. The body is that of a man dating from the late 3rd century BC, during the early Germanic Iron Age. Based on the evide ...
*
List of unsolved murders These lists of unsolved murders include notable cases where victims were murdered in unknown circumstances. * List of unsolved murders (before 1900) * List of unsolved murders (1900–1979) * List of unsolved murders (1980–1999) * List of unsol ...
*
Tollund Man The Tollund Man (died 405–380 BC) is a naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 5th century BC, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was found in 1950, preserved as a bog body, near Si ...
*
Windeby I Windeby I is the name given to the bog body found preserved in a peat bog near Windeby, Northern Germany, in 1952. Until recently, the body was also called the ''Windeby Girl'', since an archeologist believed it to be the body of a 14-year-old g ...
*
Yde Girl Yde Girl () is a bog body found in the ''Stijfveen'' peat bog near the village of Yde, Netherlands. She was found on 12 May 1897 and was reputedly uncannily well-preserved when discovered (especially her hair), but by the time the body was turn ...


References

{{Bog body 1922 archaeological discoveries 1922 in Germany Archaeology of Lower Saxony Bog bodies Deaths by stabbing in Germany Disability studies Iron Age Germany Year of birth unknown Year of death uncertain