Bog bodies
One of legacies of the ice age spread all over northern Europe is a layer of peat (a precursor to coal, see http://bit.ly/2AdN5EL) formed of a mixture of partly decayed soggy oxygen poor plant matter and living sphagnum moss. Its low oxygen levels, acid and tannin contents and the cool temperatures of these boreal regions make it an excellent preserver of archaeological organic remains, from wood to bodies. Sadly the European peatlands are fast disappearing; victims to the garden compost industry, removing a major carbon sink in the process (see http://bit.ly/2BhKhDB).
Iron Age people in the continent all seem to have valued watery liminal places for worship and sacrifice, and many votive hoards of weapons or valuables have been found sacrificed in such boggy places, rivers, lakes and ponds. Other grimmer remnants have also turned up over the years, though the debate runs between murder, capital punishment and human sacrifice to explain the excellently preserved bodies and their accompanying marks of savage violence that grace museums all over the northern reaches of the continent. Their skins and hair are often reddish brown due to the effect of the acids and tannins that mummified and pickled them, though the acids have usually dissolved any bone.
Found from Ireland to Poland and averaging between 2-3000 years old (in the iron Age, though the oldest is 8,000), Denmark and the Ireland have turned up the highest densities, mostly found by accident by peat cutters, since it was the common fuel of the poor well into the 20th century. Humans are not the only species represented; dogs are common finds as well. Since the people who left them were pre literate there are no records of what they represent or why these humans (male and female) were killed, though the cultures involved mostly cremated their dead, sending their ashes down river or out to sea so these are not ordinary funerals. Tacitus in his Germania mentions the practice but without giving much detail and it is hard with Roman writing to distinguish truth from propaganda since the only history was written by the victors.
Most of these people met very violent ends and were mostly buried naked or wearing just a hat, often from multiple injuries that frequently combined strangulation, blows to the head from blunt objects and a slit throat before being gently deposited in the bog. Some of them are pinned to the ground symbolically with forked branches, while a few show signs of torture such as deep cuts beneath the nipples or of being slit open for their viscera to be examined for auguries (again a practice recorded by Roman historians, in this case Caesar discussing the druids in De Belle Gallico).
Many of them had intact stomach contents, providing useful insights into ancient diets, though their last sacrificial meals may have been untypical. Many seem to have been upper class with manicured unroughened hands, and tests on hair and teeth record good nutrition during their lifetime. While they have been appearing for centuries it wasn't until the advent of radiocarbon dating in the mid 20th century CE that the theories that they were all recent murder victims was put to rest, and modern forensics can tell us a lot about how they lived. Either way they provide one of the most poignant reminders of ancient times.
Loz
Image credit: 1 Grauballe Man, the main attraction of the Moesgaard Museum, died when his throat was slit Robert Harding / Alamy Stock Photo 2: Tollund Man was found just 40m from Elling Woman with a noose still around his neck: Robert Harding / Alamy Stock Photo) 3 Head of bog body Tollund Man. Found on 1950-05-06 near Tollund, Silkebjorg, Denmark and C14 dated to approximately 375-210 BCE. Sven Rosborn