Thesis (M.S.)--University of Oregon, 2001. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-177). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to UO users.

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Yes / Bog bodies are among the best-known archaeological finds worldwide. Much of the work on these often extremely well-preserved human remains has focused on forensics, whereas the environmental setting of the finds has been largely overlooked. This applies to both the ‘physical’ and ‘cultural’ landscape and constitutes a significant problem since the vast spatial and temporal scales over which the practice appeared demonstrate that contextual assessments are of the utmost importance for our explanatory frameworks. In this article we develop best practice guidelines for the contextual analysis of bog bodies after having assessed the current state of research and presented the results of three recent case studies including the well-known finds of Lindow Man in the United Kingdom, Bjældskovdal (Tollund Man and Elling Woman) in Denmark, and Yde Girl in the Netherlands. Three spatial and chronological scales are distinguished and linked to specific research questions and methods. This provides a basis for further discussion and a starting point for developing approaches to bog body finds and future discoveries, while facilitating and optimising the re-analysis of previous studies, making it possible to compare deposition sites across time and space. / The Home Turf Project of Wageningen University and Research Centre, financed by the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO Vidi Project, no. 276-60-003).

What happened to the people in the bogs, and will we ever know why? This paper will try to answer this by studying cases from the bronze-to-Iron age in the North of Europe, by applying forensic, historic and criminological methods. In my paper I have conclu- ded that there is not a single motive to why the people in the bog were murdered. Ho- wever I have determined that they were all murdered.

Natural mummification occurs on every continent and in various environments. While the oldest preserved human being was discovered in the Swiss Alps, the high altitude mountains of Peru and Chile have also produced almost perfectly preserved human remains as well as a myriad of cultural artifacts. The bogs in Europe have also provided hundreds of preserved humans who appear to have fallen victim to ancient sacrificial ceremonies or capital punishment. The arid desert environments of Egypt and parts of Asia have also preserved the remains of individuals in their graves, buried in brightly colored clothing and given personal artifacts to be taken with them into the afterlife. Because the corpses and the cultural artifacts are so well preserved, natural mummies have yielded an enormous amount of previously unknown information. The purpose of this study is to provide a biocultural analysis of naturally mummified individuals and associated evidence to illustrate the lives of the people including information about status, health, diet, wealth, age, and sex of those individuals. To accomplish this objective, this study will focus on the environments responsible for preservation as well as numerous mummies and artifacts that have been found in them.

This thesis examines the wetland sacrifices that were performed in Northern Europe in the Iron Age. Skedemosse on central Öland is the largest wetland sacrifice in Sweden and was the site of a cult which sacrificed animals and humans. Between the late second century and well into the fifth century the place was also used for large sacrifices of military equipment. New radiocarbon dates has shown that the place functioned as a ritual place from the Pre Roman Iron Age and into the Late Viking Age. Both in the Iron Age and later wetlands seem to have been both venerated and feared and the thesis discusses why this came to be, and how it can be seen in the archaeological material. A smaller part of the sacrificial site of Skedemosse was selected for a closer study and it was possible to establish several depositions which appear to have been treated slightly different from each other. The investigations of the animal sacrifices have focused on the horses as they are the most common animal. The horse was an important mythological animal in the Iron Age and they were equally important in the cult. The horses in Skedemosse were eaten in ritual meals, and it is possible that some of them took part in ritual races along the ridge east of the former lake.  Such races were called skeið and the name Skedemosse may be derived from this word. Skedemosse is also rare because the remains of ca 38 people have been found in it. Some of these people have suffered a violent death. They are compared to other bog bodies from northern Europe and the follow a similar pattern to those; In the Pre Roman Iron Age mainly women and children were sacrificed and after the first century AD mainly men ended up in the lake.

Is it relevant to treat bog bodies as its own category within the archaeological research? This paper examines how scholars and researchers, through their publications and depictions of the preserved prehistoric individuals, are helping to create such a category. What has changed in the way scholars look at and describe these astounding finds? Also examines the various theories researchers provide regarding bog bodies and how they are deposited.

<p>Is it relevant to treat bog bodies as its own category within the archaeological research? This paper examines how scholars and researchers, through their publications and depictions of the preserved prehistoric individuals, are helping to create such a category. What has changed in the way scholars look at and describe these astounding finds? Also examines the various theories researchers provide regarding bog bodies and how they are deposited.</p>

Den här texten fokuserar på fem mossliksfynd från förromersk järnålder i Danmark. Med dessa fallexempel undersöktes också vilken betydelse mossen som en våtmark i sig kan överbevarandet av forntida människokroppar och vilka forskningsresultat som presenterats underde senaste åren. Utifrån dessa avgränsningar ämnade frågeställningarna att jämföra de fem fynden, undersöka möjliga orsaker till varför offren dött samt vilka möjligheter och begränsningar som fyndmaterialet har idag. Tanken kring teori var att se hur mossar kunde fungera som speciella platser under järnålder för mänskliga handlingar av deponeringar. Resultatet blev att där finns likheter och skillnader mellan mossliken, att en mängd orsaker kunde förklara deponeringar i mossar, och att där finns både positiva möjligheter med fortsatt forskning men att fyndmaterialet också är begränsat på flera sätt. / This paper focuses on five bog bodies from Denmark, from the pre-roman Iron Age. With these case examples, the importance of the bog as a wetland in itself in preserving ancient human bodies was also investigated and which research results have been presented in recent years. Based on these boundaries, the question intended were to compare the five case examples, investigate possible reasons for why the victims died and what opportunities and limitations the find material has today. The idea behind the theory was to see how bogs could have functioned as special sites for human depositions during the Iron Age. The results were that there are similarities and differences between bog bodies, that a number of reasons could explain depositions, that there are both positive opportunities with continued research but that the material found is also limited in several ways.