
old croghan man cut in half
The peat bogs of Ireland hold many treasures and are a rich source of bog bodies. The properties of the peat preserves these ancient peoples – even the contents of their last meal.

oldcroghan nipples cut, stabbed in ribs, later beheaded and dismembered
In 2006 two bog bodies of men were found and displayed in Dublin. One, a giant of a man (6ft 6in) had manicured nails, he was called Oldcroghan (after the place he was found). The other, (Clonycavan man) measured only 5ft 2 in and had a piled up hair style (just like me – and about the same height too!). To hold this hairstyle together, he wore a kind of hair gel! And they women are vain!

clonycavan man
Both men seem to have been part of elite, not manual labourers: both were murdered. the whole article about them, which makes interesting reading.

the peat has looked after his hair
But it isn’t only men who are found in bogs. There is Meenybradden woman. She was found in 1978 in a peat bog. Her body was wrapped in a woollen cloak and does not appear to have met a grisly end. Her age is estimated to be between 25 and 30. She was at one time the best preserved body – until the body got damaged in the deep freeze! Unfortunately I can’t get a decent image of what is left of the woman.

The Bog Bodies by P V Glob, my first encounter with bog bodies
Bog bodies are fascinating, they can tell us so much about ourselves and how we lived. A lot have been destroyed (unintentionally) by peat cutting machinery, but there must be lots lying silently, more just waiting to be discovered.
I have other posts about bodies found in bogs here and here
More bog bodies here
0.000000
0.000000
This entry was posted on February 27, 2010 at 12:05 am and is filed under BODIES IN PRESERVATION, HISTORY with tags archaelogy, bog bodies, clonycavan man, irish bog bodies, meenybradden woman, oldcroghan man, p v glob, peat, preservation, tollund man. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 27, 2010 at 10:56 pm
very awesome post!
February 27, 2010 at 11:05 pm
Thanks Jingle, I love these alien yet familiar ‘voices’ from our past. Thanls for stopping by – appreciated!
February 27, 2010 at 11:39 pm
I knew nothing about this topic until I read your blog…thank you for the information…it was very interesting.
February 27, 2010 at 11:42 pm
Great slpmartin! More posts about others are in the bottom link. Thanks for visiting my blog, there’s loads of different categories apart from the dead lol!
July 10, 2010 at 5:40 am
[…] https://echostains.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/more-bog-bodies-ireland/ […]
March 10, 2012 at 1:30 pm
Brilliant post ,I find bog bodies really interesting and hardly ever see posts on them ,,
March 12, 2012 at 1:14 am
There’s quite a few posts about them on here. yet another category I need to revive perhaps:-)