Bog Bodies: New Discoveries and New Perspectives

Bog Bodies presents the results of the research carried out into this extraordinary phenomenon since the publication of the monograph Lindow Man in 1986. Over the last few years some key questions have been answered and new avenues of research opened up. Twenty-seven contributors from four countries bring a wide range of scientific and historical expertise to this survey. Apart from the finds from Lindow Moss, numerous bog bodies have been rediscovered or re-examined in Ireland and the Netherlands, all of which have now been systematically studied using modern scientific techniques.Bog bodies recorded in Britain and Ireland and a review of recent work into bog bodies found on the continent, highlighting a research project in the Netherlands, are surveyed as a whole. The reasons behind the deposition of bodies in bogs, their social context, and their place in the mythological as well as historical record of northern Europe are discussed in detail.