children's author James M. Deem   

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 Featured Books:

Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers & the Recovery of the Past

Bodies from the Ash

Bodies from the Bog

3 NBs of Julian Drew

 
 

 

For more information about bogs and bog bodies, see

by James M. Deem

What's in a bog?

Peat CutterBogs are primarily composed of water and peat (which is decaying plants). 

Bogs have different layers of peat. A cross section of a bog shows that the peat layers change color. This cross section of a bog is exhibited at the Moor and Fen Museum in Elisabethfehn, Germany The lighter peat (weisstorf in German) is chunkier; the dead plants in it have decomposed less. This peat is called peat moss and is used primarily for gardening (though it has been used in animal pens since it's much more sanitary than straw). The darker peat (schwarztorf in German) is much denser and used for heat and fuel.

MumpsPeat is cut in chunks, called mumps. Mumps are stacked, sometimes in elaborate piles, to dry. A large stack of mumpsWhen dry, the peat can be processed for industrial or medicinal purposes or burned. It is also used to produce charcoal.

In the past, the people of northern Europe (where many bogs were once found)  would go into the bogs to dig peat. Examples of the many different types of shovels used by peat cutters, as displayed at the Moor and Fen Museum in Elisabethfesh, Germany First, they would drain the upper level of water to a lower area. Then they used shovels and special peat saws to cut the peat and dry it for use. After the industrial revolution,  they might build a small rail track so that a larger number of mumps might be hauled at one time. Eventually, they began to use machines to help them cut. Small cart on rails used to remove peat mumps from a bog, as displayed at the Moor and Fen Museum in Elisabethfehn, Germany Early machines were smaller; these were followed by huge machines that could cut a great deal of peat. Of course the more peat that was cut, the more bogs were destroyed. An older peat-harvesting machine Today very few bogs exist in northern Europe. In Germany, attempts have been made to regrow bogs, but this is a very slow process. A raised bog may grow a millimeter in one year's time. 

Sometimes, as people cut peat in bogs, they found things that had been placed there long ago. Early peat cutters at work, shown in a photograph displayed at the Moor and Fen Museum in Elisabethfehn, GermanyThey found wonderful objects--necklaces, swords, or even silver cauldrons.  And sometimes they found the gruesome, preserved remains of human beings: men, women, and children.

Note: Preserved bodies have been found only in the bogs of northern Europe.

 

 

BOG BODY STORIES AT jamesmdeem.com

Bog Body Story 1 (The story of Lindow Man)

Bog Body Story 2 (The discovery of Grauballe Man)

 
 

 

Unless otherwise noted, all contents ŠJames M. Deem, 1988-2008. 

For permission to quote from or reproduce this material, please contact James M. Deem.

Be sure to visit James M. Deem's other website, The Mummy Tombs for the most mummy information on the Internet.