Bog bodies
Face to face with the past
By Melanie Giles
-
Paperback
Delivery Exc. North and South America
-
Delivery to North and South America
- Click Here to Buy from Your Preferred Bookseller
ALSO AVAILABLE IN OTHER FORMATS:

Book Information
- Format: Paperback
- ISBN: 978-1-5261-5018-9
- Pages: 328
- Publisher: Manchester University Press
- Price: £25.00
- Published Date: December 2020
- BIC Category: ART / Museum Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, Reference, information & interdisciplinary subjects / Museology & heritage studies, Iron Age, Environmental archaeology, England, Archaeology by period / region, HISTORY / Ancient / General, Environmental Archaeology, Humanities / Landscape archaeology, Archaeology, Roman Britain (c 43 BCE to c 410 CE), Museology & heritage studies, Landscape archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
Description
The 'bog bodies' of north-western Europe have captured the imaginations of poets and archaeologists alike, allowing us to come face-to-face with individuals from the past. Their exceptional preservation permits us to examine minute details of their lives and deaths, making us reflect poignantly on our own mortality. But, as this book argues, the bodies must be resituated within a turbulent world of endemic violence and change. Reinterpreting the latest continental research and new discoveries, and featuring a ground-breaking 'cold case' forensic study of Worsley Man, Manchester Museum's 'bog head', it brings the bogs to life through both natural history and folklore, revealing them as places that were rich and fertile yet dangerous. The book also argues that these remains do not just pose practical conservation problems but also philosophical dilemmas, compounded by the critical debate on if - and how - they should be displayed.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Discovering bog bodies
3 Preserving the dead
4 Crossing the bog
5 Exquisite things and everyday treasures: interpreting deposition in the bog
6 Violent ends
7 Worsley Man: Manchester's bog head
8 Disquieting exhibits
9 Conclusion: creative legacies
Index
Author
Melanie Giles is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Manchester