Lindow Man or Pete Moss
I put a bog body image in my last post (like you do…). I am fascinated with the preservation of bodies. I was lucky enough to see Lindow Man (or Pete Moss as he is affectionately called) in Manchester Museum not long after he was found and couldn’t get over how small he was!. I have been interested in bog bodies ever since reading Professor P V Glob’s books in the 1970s. I never knew such mummies even existed.
At first I was just curious and a little repulsed by them. But as I read more about them, I began become feel a kind of kinship with these men and women who inhabited a world alien to me now (who really knows if we have lived before, or if there is such a thing as collective consciousness?). I’d like to think so. The harsh existence these people faced: the Gods they worshipped – the very frailties of their lives. The clues are all there. Even the food they ate and what season they died in has been discovered through their autopsies.
The Tollund man does not sleep easy
Amongst my favorite bog bodies is the Tollund man. he is preserved and displayed in the Silkeborg Museum. How I would love to see him! The tranquil look on his ‘sleeping’ face belies the hideous leather garrote twisted into his neck. even his leather cap is a work of art, the tiny stitches still being visible from 400BC! the stubble on his chin, his beautiful fingerprints (which have been taken) are things of wonder. Even the pores of his skin are visible, though the rest of his body has disintegrated. The man was found in the foetal position, naked except for his hat and hide belt.It is the acid in the peat that preserves these bodies. Unfortunately some them have been lost or have been damaged by the peat cutter. It is indeed amazing how these silent sentinels offer up their secrets. It’s even more miraculous that we have the technology to understand our past!
More info HERE
Archaeology of bogs HERE
Irish Bog Bodies HERE
Tollund man image from here and here
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