Bog bodies

Face to face with the past

Bibliographic Data

ID8118564
AuthorsMelanie Giles (0000-0003-1815-3489, corresponding author)
Year2020
Publication date2020-12-07
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueBog Bodies (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherManchester University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.7765/9781526150196
OpenAlexW4242118846
Open LibraryOL35548610M
ISBN9781526150196
LanguageEN
Citations received21

The ‘bog bodies’ of north-western Europe have captured the imagination of poets as much as archaeologists, confronting us with human remains where time has stopped – allowing us to come ‘face to face’ with individuals from the past. Their exceptional preservation allows us to examine unprecedented details of both their lives and deaths, making us reflect poignantly upon our own mortality. Yet this book argues that they must be resituated within a turbulent world of endemic violence and change, reinterpreting the latest Continental research and new discoveries in this light. The book features a ground-breaking ‘cold case’ forensic study of Worsley Man: Manchester Museum’s ‘bog head’ and brings the bogs to life through both natural history and folklore, as places that were rich, fertile, yet dangerous. Finally, it argues that these remains do not just pose practical conservation problems but philosophical dilemmas, compounded by the critical debate on if – and how – they should be displayed, with museum exemplars drawn from across the globe

Archaeology · Bog · Environmental ethics · Ethnology · Face (sociological concept · Folklore · Geography · Globe · Natural (archaeology · Natural history · Peat · Social science · Sociology · Archaeological Research and Protection · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Psychology · Anthropology · Ecology · History · Philosophy