Tuesday 5 June 2012

Peat Bog Secrets


Tolland Man - Found in 1950, laying in a boggy patch since 400 BC.  Denmark. Celtic.

Once removed he was preserved for six months, first by smoking like a sausage, and he has also had his head steeped in alcohol, and the bogwater padding out cells replaced by bees wax (which never goes off). 
It is a shame Gunter Von Hagens wasnt around for a spot of plastination in 1950, but whatever the method, this man's face is preserved for us to see and ponder on today and I think he'd be chuffed with the results, that is if he wasn't thoroughly insulted. It's hard to tell what he would have thought and Im not sure anyone even considered that - it seems if you fall outside a few generations, you become an artefact rather than an ancestor. . However, although body didnt last so well, the unadulterated bones can be used for further tests and this all serves some purpose by allowing us to understand the life and conditions of the Iron age.  I suppose the question is this - is our quest for truth and knowledge more important than anything else.? Apparently so!
I wonder if war heroes will be dug up and smoked in a few centuries?

Other examinations show he wasn't keen on fish, or had little access, but liked a good bowl of barley and seed soup or porridge....which would be welcome after a day of ploughing and self sufficiency Im sure..

Scans reveal he was hanged, whereas cremation on a pyre and then buryng of ashes in urns was the norm, so it is hard to say if he was a sacrifice, suicide, a punished criminal...or just murdered.

There are many bog bodies - Lindow man, Elling woman, Grauballe man  - Im sure each has their own story.  

Yellowhammer honours them.

The Gundestrup Cauldron was also found in a peat bog dating back to about 100BC.


Check out this wonderful image on it of a Celtic Shaman type or God Cernunnos:


 Possibly made by a Thracian craftsman, this certainly reveals a spiritual culture on a par with the Egyptians or others.

Just as an aside, here is a beautiful page about trees : 





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