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. / 8