Have you ever seen a dead body? I have, and I’m not just talking about a skeleton; I mean an actual body – one with fingernails and skin and muscle tissue. The bog bodies in Ireland’s National Museum allowed me that experience.
The thing about looking at a skeleton is, well, it doesn’t look like a person. You stare at carefully cleaned bones and empty eye sockets and it just looks so fake, like it could be made of plastic and hanging in a science classroom somewhere. But there’s something incredibly eerie about looking down at a body and being able to see its fingerprints and the color of its hair, and then letting your eyes drift a little further down and realizing the body just… stops. Everything below the stomach is just gone.
And all kinds of alarm bells start ringing in your mind.
Stranger still, you can’t stop staring. There’s something morbidly fascinating about looking at a dead body, and your imagination can’t help but run wild. What were they like when they were alive? What was the world like? Where did they live? How did they die? Where are their legs? But at the same time, you feel like you shouldn’t be staring. Like it’s an invasion of privacy, or like they’re gonna open their eyes or sit up suddenly and oh my god, run, run, RUN-
…Yeah. I took one picture and ONLY one picture – and that’s the one shown above. And as I left the room, I specifically remember asking the body to please not haunt me. So that gives you an idea of how many emotions you go through when in the prescence of a corpse.
Anyway, enough about me.
Bog bodies, sometimes referred to as bog people, are essentially mummies – well preserved human remains found in peat bogs all around the world, and Ireland has a particularly large collection of extremely well-preserved bodies. The unique environment and the chemical makeup of the bog keeps the skin and internal organs from deteriorating, and often even the clothes remain in near-perfect condition. Because of the incredibly well-preserved tissue samples these bodies provide, scientists are able to determine when they lived, how they died, and even what they ate!
So let’s talk about the Irish bog bodies.
Warning: the images may be disturbing for some people. Viewer discretion is advised.
Gallagh Man (400-200 BCE)
Photo: @Mark Healey / Flickr
Discovered in 1821 by the O’Kelly family near their home in Gallagh, Co. Galway, this bog body was in a state of near perfect preservation. However, the O’Kellys were struck with a grand idea that could make them rich – so they re-buried the body and began charging visitors a fee to dig it up and view it. This caused the remains to deteriorate drastically and unfortunately is the reason it’s poorly preserved today. In 1829, the Royal Irish Academy purchased the body and has preserved it ever since.
The body became known as Gallagh Man and radiocarbon analysis dates him back to the Iron Age. Evidence on his body suggests foul play, which would’ve taken considerable strength, submission on his part, or the element of surprise since he was 6ft tall and in his early twenties when he died. He was likely strangled to death in what some people theorize may have been a ritualistic sacrifice to appease the gods. His body was then dumped into the bog and pinned to the bottom with wooden pegs to keep it from surfacing.
Clonycavan Man (392-201 BCE)
Photo: @Mark Healey / Flickr
Another Iron Age bog body, Clonycavan Man was found in March of 2003 in Clonycavan, Ballivor, Co. Meath. His body was found in a modern peat harvesting machine, which may be why his lower body is missing, though it’s hard to tell for sure whether he was severed before or after being buried.
Around 2,300 years ago, this man, only 5’2 and in his early twenties, may have been a king who was ritually sacrificed to appease the gods of harvest after a poor crop season. He was killed with several blows to the head.
One of the most defining features of Clonycavan Man is that he wore a primitive form of hair gel (plant oil and pine resin) in his hair to make it stick up, and he also may have kept his hair tied up, as the remnants of a hair tie were found with his body. This suggests he was probably wealthy to be able to afford these products, which would’ve had to be imported – further supporting the king theory.
Old Croghan Man (362-175 BCE)
Photo: @Mark Healey / Flickr
Old Croghan Man is one of the most well-known of Ireland’s bog bodies, in part due to a story about the famous mythological character Finn MacCool.
Found 25 miles away from Clonycavan Man and dated back to the same time period, Old Croghan Man was found by workers digging a drain through a bog near Croghan Hill in Co. Offaly. His head and lower torso were never found, suggesting that he was beheaded and severed in half before his burial in the bog (which was once a lake). Because his body was found so close to Clonycavan Man’s remains, it’s theorized that the two bodies may have been symbolically used as territorial markers.
Old Croghan Man was probably another king or man of high status, as he had manicured nails and wore a leather arm-ring at the time of his death. He was about 6’6 and also in his early twenties. Evidence on his body shows that he was tortured, may have tried to defend himself, and eventually died from a stab wound to the chest.
But how does this relate to Finn MacCool? Well, Croghan Hill is known as Bri Eile in Irish mythology, and “The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn [Finn]” mentions a beautiful maiden named Ele who lived in the fairy-knoll of Bri Ele. Men all across Ireland fought over her and tried to win her love, but every time a man attempted to woo her, one of his people was killed, and it was never found out who did it.
So, what if these aren’t sacrifices?
Baronstown West Man (242-388 BCE)
Photo: @Mark Healey / Flickr
Not much is known about the Baronstown West Man, other than that he was found in 1953 in Co. Kildare and is one of the least well-preserved of the bog bodies on display in Ireland’s National Museum. Hazel or birch branches were found with the body and he was wearing a cloak made of leather and textiles.
Cashel Man (2000 BCE)
Photo: @RTG / Wikimedia
It was August of 2011 when a new Irish bog body was found at Cashel bog in Co. Laois. But there was one major difference between this one and all the others: this one was older. Much older.
In fact, thanks to radiocarbon dating, it was discovered that Cashel Man is the oldest flesh-covered bog body in all of Europe. This man lived and died in the Early Bronze Age.
The body was found lying in the middle of the bog on its right side with its legs tightly flexed, buried with two hazel rods which dated back to about 2100 BCE. Several parts of the remains were accidentally removed by the milling machine workers had been using, but many of them were recovered. The man is believed to have been a young adult and probably a victim of human sacrifice, but unfortunately remains were too damaged by machine to determine cause of death.
However, the discovery of this body revealed something else: these ritualistic sacrifices – originally thought to have been a practice that only existed in the Iron Age – are the very same rituals that were being performed over a millenium earlier.
Wow. All I can say is, thank goodness I wasn’t a king in ancient Ireland.
Adventure on, my friends!
So, were you creeped out? Were you fascinated? Both? Did you learn something new? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought, and don’t forget to share this post if you enjoyed it!
Save it on Pinterest!
