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The Weerdinge Men is the name given to two
NOVA , The Perfect Corpse , Bog Bodies of the Iron Age , PBS
/ref> The cause of death of the other Weerdinge Man is unknown.
The Weerdinge Men is the name given to two 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 ...
found in 1904 in Weerdinge
Weerdinge is a neighbourhood and former village of Emmen in the Dutch province of Drenthe.
History
Weerdinge is an ''esdorp'' which developed in the 10th century, on the road from Emmen naar Exloo. It was first mentioned in 1327 as Weerdighe ...
, Drenthe, in the southern part of Bourtange moor
The Bourtanger Moor (Dutch: ''Bourtangerveen/Bourtangermoeras'', German: ''Bourtanger Moor'', Low Saxon: ''Boertanger Moor'') was a bog in eastern parts in the Dutch provinces of Drenthe and Groningen and the bordering German districts of Benth ...
, in the Netherlands
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, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. Radiocarbon dating shows that they likely died between 160 BC and 220 AD. At first, it was believed that one of the two bodies was female, which led to the name "Weerdinge Couple", or, more popular, "Mr. and Mrs. Veenstra", ''veen'' being the Dutch term for bog and "Veenstra" being a common Dutch surname.
Pathology
The more complete Weerdinge Man had a large wound on his chest, through which his intestines spilled out. Some observers believe that this points to aritualistic
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, ...
purpose for the killing. Strabo, a Roman historian, recounts tales of Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
Europeans attempting to divine the future by "reading entrails."/ref> The cause of death of the other Weerdinge Man is unknown.
References