Bog Bodies Uncovered: Solving Europe's Ancient Mystery

Some 2,000 years ago, certain unfortunate individuals were violently killed and buried not in graves but in bogs. What was a tragedy for the victims has proved an archaeologist's dream, for the peculiar and acidic properties of the bog have preserved the bodies so that their skin, hair, soft tissue, and internal organs--even their brains--survive. Most of these ancient swamp victims have been discovered in regions with large areas of raised bog: Ireland, northwest England, Denmark, the Netherlands, and northern Germany. They were almost certainly murder victims and, as such, their bodies and their burial places can be treated as crime scenes. The cases are cold, but this book explores the extraordinary information they reveal about our prehistoric past.

Bog Bodies Uncovered updates Professor P. V. Glob's seminal publication The Bog People, published in 1969, in the light of vastly improved scientific techniques and newly found bodies. Approached in a radically different style akin to a criminal investigation, here the bog victims appear, uncannily well-preserved, in full-page images that let the reader get up close and personal with the ancient past.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 09/29/2015
ISBN: 9780500051825
Pages: 224
Weight: 1.55lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 1.00d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2015
Library Journal 09/01/2015 pg. 133
Discover 10/01/2015 pg. 16
Publishers Weekly 09/28/2015
Choice 02/01/2016