Bog Bodies

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Comyn
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Bog Bodies

Post by Comyn »

While the Celts did not practice the art of mummification purposefully, some bodies have been preserved in peat bogs with remarkable detail. The May/June 2010 issue of Archaeology magazine has a nice article on some of the more sensational bog body finds and how they have been interpreted (usually incorrectly) over time. The last page of the article discusses two famous Irish peat bog bodies named Clonycavan Man and Old Croghan Man. These bodies date to between 400 and 200 BC, over 800 years before our period, but still very interesting. I will attach a scan of the relevant page to this post.
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Faellon
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Clonycavan and Old Croghan Men article

Post by Faellon »

by Jarrett A. Lobell and Samir S. Patel
Archaeology Magazine
Volume 63 Number 3, May/June 2010

In about 500 B.C., the Celtic culture that had begun in central Europe reached Britain and Ireland. The Celts in Ireland divided themselves into about 150 kingdoms, each ruled by its own sovereign, marking the boundaries between them with wooden posts and standing stones. Now a radical theory concerning two recently discovered bog bodies, proposed by Eamonn P. Kelly, keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland, suggests a new interpretation for the brutal killings of ancient Ireland’s best-preserved victims.
clonycavan_croghan1.gif
Clonycavan Man (Courtesy National Museum of Ireland)

Seven years ago, not far from Dublin in the town of Clonycavan, County Meath, and near Croghan Hill, County Offaly, two bog bodies were found within three months of each other. Clonycavan Man had been severed in half by a peat-cutting machine, but scientists from Archaeological Development Services, who were hired by the peat company, were able to recover his body from the torso up. His skull had been split open, likely by a stone ax, and the bridge of his nose was also struck, probably with the same weapon. Twenty-five miles away, peat workers found Old Croghan Man, who, although he is just a torso with arms, shows evidence of what can only be described as overkill. He had a defensive wound on his upper left arm where he may have tried to protect himself, and had been bound by a hazel branches (withies) threaded through holes in his upper arms, stabbed in the chest, struck in the neck, decapitated, and cut in half. Radiocarbon dating showed that Clonycavan Man lived between 392 and 201 B.C. and Old Croghan Man between 362 and 175 B.C., the height of the Celtic Iron Age. Like Grauballe Man and Lindow Man, both men were young, showed few signs of physical labor during their lives, and were healthy at the time of their deaths. By examining chemical traces in his hair, scholars from the National Museum of Ireland concluded that Clonycavan Man’s diet was rich in vegetables, and that he was killed in the summer or early fall when fresh produce would have been available. His hair also created much interest for both scholars and the public for the unusual way it was twisted over his head and held in place with gel made of plant oil and pine resin. Some people called it the world’s first mohawk. These ingredients were imported from France or southwestern Spain, suggesting that Clonycavan Man himself, or the people who sacrificed him, were trading with the Continent.
clonycavan_croghan2.gif
Old Croghan Man (Courtesy National Museum of Ireland)

Researchers also found evidence of Old Croghan Man’s wealth and special status. He was exceptionally tall for a man of this period, standing almost six and a half feet. Analysis of his hair and nails showed that he regularly ate meat, an expensive luxury. In contrast, his last supper was composed of cereals and buttermilk, which Kelly believes was a ritual meal. Around one bicep, he had a braided leather armband and a bronze amulet covered in decorative copper-alloy mounts.

Examining the details of both men’s lives and deaths has led Kelly to suggest a new way of looking at the meaning of eight well-preserved Irish bog bodies. “I believe these men were failed kings or failed candidates for kingship who were killed and placed in bogs that formed important tribal boundaries. Both Clonycavan and Old Croghan men’s nipples were pinched and cut. “Sucking a king’s nipples was a gesture of submission in ancient Ireland,” says Kelly. “Cutting them would have made him incapable of kingship.” The bodies served as offerings to the goddess of the land to whom the king was wed in his inauguration ceremony. According to Kelly, both men’s multiple injuries may reflect the belief that the goddess was not only one of the land and fertility, but also of sovereignty, war, and death. “By using a range of methods to kill the victim, the ancient Irish sacrificed to the goddess in all her forms,” he says.

Comyn, don't get any ideas based off that last paragraph...
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Comyn
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new law

Post by Comyn »

I have drafted a new law that I will propose at the next meeting. Oh, and I think its high time we elected a woman as Chieftain.
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Hrotger
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Re: Clonycavan and Old Croghan Men article

Post by Hrotger »

"“Sucking a king’s nipples was a gesture of submission in ancient Ireland,” says Kelly. “Cutting them would have made him incapable of kingship.” The bodies served as offerings to the goddess of the land to whom the king was wed in his inauguration ceremony. According to Kelly, both men’s multiple injuries may reflect the belief that the goddess was not only one of the land and fertility, but also of sovereignty, war, and death. “By using a range of methods to kill the victim, the ancient Irish sacrificed to the goddess in all her forms,” he says. "

I would be interested in see what research was done to support these statements? I have never come across any references to sucking the kings nipples. I wonder if they are using a reference from a history compiled in a later period or some type of myth. Making interpretations about "religious" practices without either historical records or some type of analogous connection with similar activities in a related culture that have historical records is very problematic.
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Comyn
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sucking the nipples

Post by Comyn »

Hows that for a headline to grab attention?

The only reference I could find (in my few minutes of searching around the web) was in The Confession of Saint Patrick which is found in the Book of Armagh. Wikipedia at least suggests that the book is only as old as about 807 AD, but of course may have been copied from one older which is no longer extant. See section 18:

http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/cel ... s/p01.html
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Hrotger
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More sucking the nipples

Post by Hrotger »

Ha Ha ... even more titilating of a title.

Somthing as odd and remarkable as that would, one would think, have been more remarked upon. LOL I was just curious in that I know a lot of things can often be found across the IE horizon and had never heard of this practice or one similer in any other cultures.
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