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Peat forms when plant material, usually in marshy areas, is inhibited from decaying fully by acidic and anaerobic conditions. It is composed mainly of marshland vegetation: trees, grasses, fungi, as well as other types of organic remains, such as insects, and animal corpses. • Peat is an accumulation of partially decayedvegetationmatter.
Bog Bodies • Bog bodies have been dated from the Stone Age to modern times, but the best preserved date from the Iron Age and Roman periods. The reasons why they came to be in the bogs are diverse: accidental death, burial, murder and ritual sacrifice have all been suggested,
Osterby Man • Osterby ManA.D. 1-100Found near Osterby, Germany in 1948Only his decapitated head was found, wrapped in a deerskin cape. He was likely killed by a blow to his left temple before he was decapitated. His hair, reddened by chemicals in the peat, is tied in an elaborate hairstyle called a Swabian knot. The Roman historian Tacitus, who lived in Osterby Man's era, describes the hairstyle as typical of the Suebi tribe of Germany.
Yde Girl 100 B.C.-A.D. 50 • Found in Drenthe, The Netherlands in 1897A small percentage of bog bodies are children. Yde Girl appears to have been strangled and stabbed at the age of 16. Some experts believe she was selected for sacrifice in part because of her awkward gait and curved spine (CT scans revealed she had scoliosis). Other CT scans, of her skull, aided the reconstruction of her face. Her long fair hair was preserved in the peat, but on half of her head it had been cut off. Other bog bodies also had their hair cut when they were killed.
Grauballe man • Grauballe Man was carefully excavated under the supervision of archeologist and bogbody specialist P. V. Glob, and has become one of the most X-rayed and analyzed corpses in the world. Before his throat was cut, Grauballe Man ate a soup laced with an hallucinogenic fungus perhaps intended to induce a trance-like state in a ritual that included his sacrifice.
