The Bog Man and the Archaeology of People

140 Pages·1987·53.48 MB·English

by  Don Brothwell

THE
BOG MAN
AND THE
ARCHAEOLOGY OF PEOPLE

THE
BOG M AN
AND THE
A R C H A E O L O G Y OF PEOPLE
Don Brothwell
1 larvard I’nivcrsitv Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
19 St
Copyright (C) 1986 bv Don Brothwell
All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Published by arrangement with British Museum Publications.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brothwell, Don R.
The bog man and the archaeology of people.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Lindow Man. 2. Bog bodies. 5. Anthropometry.
4. Water-saturated sites (Archaeology). 5. Iron
age Great Britain. 6. (Alts Great Britain.
7. Great Britain Antiquities. I. Title.
GN780.22.G7B76 1987 573 87-8435
ISBN 0-674-07732-6 (paper)
0-674-07735-4 (cloth)
Contents
Acknowledgements 7
Introduction 9
A Body is Discovered IO
Clues to a Murder
Reconstructing a Physique 45
Looking for Disease 56
Recreating an Environment
77
The Last Meal
89
Beyond the Bog Body 97
Conclusion 121
Bibliography 124
Index 127
To the memory of
Maureen Girling, 1950-1985,
friend and collaborator
in the Lindow Man project
Acknowledgements
It is a pleasure to offer my sincere thanks to all those who have assisted in
the production of this account of the investigation of Lindow Man and the
archaeology of people in general.
Ian Stead of the British Museum kindly invited me to join the
Lindow project at an early planning stage, and subsequently read and
offered comment on the manuscript of this book. The numerous
specialists in the project provided a range of information which I have
called on, and I hope used correctly. During the ‘formative’ stage of
gathering and sifting information, I visited or otherwise called on the help
of various friends and colleagues, particularly Jim Bourke, Rosalie David,
Deirdre O’Sullivan, David Liversage, Andrew Jones, Jack Harbison,
Emme Rabino Massa, Tim Holden, Keith Dobnev, Malcolm McLeod,
Michael Gebiihr and Geoffrey Dimbleby. The late ‘Sandy’ Sandison,
master palaeopathologist of mummies, stimulated my interest in this field
and provided me with various illustrations, some of which I have used
here. Teresa Francis of British Museum Publications has provided that
most important of assistance, friendly and proficient editing.
Finally, the wide range of illustrations w ould not have been possible
without the help of colleagues, museums and photographic departments in
various parts of the world. These may be listed as follow s:
British Museum: i, 5-7, 12-16, 20, 35, 52, 54, 62, 68-9, 84, I, V; British Museum
(Natural History): 18, 47, 66, 92-3, 95; Manchester Museum: 37, 50, 85 6;
National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh: III; Forhistorisk Museum,
Moesgard, Denmark: 2, 9-11, 17, 48; National Museum, Copenhagen: 28-30, 71,
78; Silkeborg Museum, Denmark: 8, 22-4, 31; Greenland Museum: 88, VII;
Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, Germany: 4, 21; State Hermitage Museum of
Leningrad: 81, IV; Cairo Museum: 56, 94; Provincial Museum of Drenthe,
Assen, Netherlands: 77; Hunan Provincial Museum, Changsha, China: 90; Jintan
Museum, Jiangsu Province, China: 91; Museum of Anthropology, University of
California, Berkeley: 41; Montezuma Castle, Arizona: 97; City University,
London (artwork by Meredydd Moores, British Museum): 32 3; by courtesy of
Reg Davis, Royal Marsden Hospital: 43-4; Department of Diagnostic Radiology,
St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London: 46, 57; Department of Diagnostic
Radiology, U niversity of Manchester: 45; U niversity of Liverpool: 38 9;
Department of Medical Photography, Royal Hospital, Sheffield: 51; Richard
Neave/BBC: 36; Heather Angcl/Biofotos: II; Deirdre O’Sullivan: 27, 80, VIII,
IX; Chief Constable of Cheshire: 3; Dr E. Rabino Massa: 40; Andrew Jones:
58-9; Dr A. W. Pike: 60; Professor G. Dimbleby: 61; Judith Dayton. 63 4; Jim
Bourke: 70; Tim Holden: 75-6.
The quotation on page 121 from The Collected Poems of Stevie Smith
(Penguin Modern Classics) is reproduced by kind permission of the poet’s
Executor, James MacGibbon.
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