New bog body discovered in Meath

Standard Toaster · 16-09-2014 3:31pm #1

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/new-bog-body-discovered-in-meath-642159.html

A new, partially intact bog body has been discovered by Bord na Mona workers in Co Meath.
Archaeologists from the National Museum of Ireland (NMI) have confirmed that it is working on a find of human remains in a bog near the border with Co Westmeath, at Rossan bog.
Archaeologist Maeve Sikora told the Irish Examiner that workers from Bord na Mona came across the remains.
“Archaeologists and conservators from The National Museum of Ireland have been on site investigating the findspot of archaeological human remains in a bog in Co. Meath, near the border with Co. Westmeath,” Ms Sikora said.
#NMIreland can confirm bog body remains of adult discovered last weekend at Rossan Bog, Meath. pic.twitter.com/ahTHcJS9uD
— Nat'l Museum Ireland (@NMIreland) September 16, 2014
“The site was reported to the National Museum by Bord Na Móna workers.
“The exact date of the remains is not known at this time but we will be conducting research in the coming months.
“A bog body found previously in this bog was radiocarbon dated to the prehistoric period. The remains do not comprise a complete bog body.”
The discovery seems to be of the lower leg and foot bones of an adult, but archaeologists are not yet sure whether the remains are male or female.
A bog body found in the same area in 2012 was radiocarbon dated to between 700 and 400 BC, and the same method will likely be used to date the new discovery.
"The oxygen-free conditions that prevail in bogs assist in the preservation of organic material such as human tissue," the museum explained in a statement.
"The survival of such remains allows for more detailed research into past lives than if only the bone was to survive."

http://irisharchaeology.ie/2014/09/new-bog-body-found-in-rossan-co-meath/

What bones are they in the pic?

cfuserkildare · 16-09-2014 3:35pm

I Don't want to down on this,

But those bones look very much like a Cow's legs to me.

baaba maal · 18-09-2014 6:01pm

But to my (completely untutored) eye, the skull looks human?

Bonedigger · 18-09-2014 8:33pm

What I think we're looking at in the image is a number of metatarsal bones and other bones of the foot.A lower leg bone was also found,but don't think a skull was present.

newmug · 18-09-2014 8:36pm

Are they sure this is not just the work of the IRA?

slowburner · 18-09-2014 8:42pm

newmug wrote: »

Are they sure this is not just the work of the IRA?

That's always a possibility and something that is always ruled out in the first instance.
Patina and discolouration are usually the first indication that the bones are not modern.
Mocmo might be able to add more information on how ancient remains are initially distinguished from recent depositions?

mocmo · 19-09-2014 10:26am

Slowburner is right, patina and discolouration are key indicators of age, it takes centuries for bog bodies to look they way they do, with skin that has essentially been tanned like leather and preserved but very soft bones. The preservation qualities of a raised bog are remarkable so a more recent burial would be much better preserved. That's a fairly simple explanation but more or less sums it up, some interesting experimental work has been done on this and is ongoing as far as I know

http://www.academia.edu/7408353/Experimental_archaeology_for_the_interpretation_of_taphonomy_related_to_bog_bodies_Lessons_learned_from_two_projects_undertaken_a_decade_apart

There is also the level at which the remains were was found to consider, this is a Bord na Mona bog which has been in production for a good few years, previous archaeological survey and excavation in it has identified sites at the least as early as the Bronze Age. Many of these are close to the field surface meaning that Bord na Mona is currently cutting through the prehistoric levels and they have probably at this stage removed up to 4m of peat. It's unlikely that a more recent burial would be that deep, although I don't know a whole lot about that type of work so I'm not sure.

Of course what's never said when these bodies are found is how and why they are being found. Without getting into the whole environmental side of the debate, the milling of bogs destroys 100's of archaeological sites (and finds) every year and despite a commitment to do so the state has ceased to commission archaeological survey in the bogs. The bogs bodies and occasionally other objects get noticed but everything else gets destroyed.

baaba maal · 19-09-2014 5:53pm

Bonedigger wrote: »

What I think we're looking at in the image is a number of metatarsal bones and other bones of the foot.A lower leg bone was also found,but don't think a skull was present.

I did say untutored!:D

RDM_83 again · 19-09-2014 8:22pm

mocmo wrote: »

Of course what's never said when these bodies are found is how and why they are being found. Without getting into the whole environmental side of the debate, the milling of bogs destroys 100's of archaeological sites (and finds) every year and despite a commitment to do so the state has ceased to commission archaeological survey in the bogs. The bogs bodies and occasionally other objects get noticed but everything else gets destroyed.

I think ADS ceased to operate in the ROI, but are you saying that they simply haven't been replaced and nobody is carrying out the trench walking to find trackways and so on?

mocmo · 20-09-2014 11:48am

That's it exactly. Bord na Mona still fund limited excavations in their bogs but the state have not funded a survey since around 2009.

They did commission a survey of Kinnegad Bog last year following the first bog body discovery there, but this was I think just a survey of that bog to look for further remains.

There are a lot of issues surrounding the archaeological policy and practice in our bogs, the report linked below lays it out pretty clearly.

http://www.archaeology.ie/media/BNM%20peatlands%20review%20final%20report%20june%202013.pdf

a148pro · 11-10-2014 10:22pm

What kind of other stuff would be preserved in bogs? I presume they wouldn't have been good locations for habitation?

slowburner · 11-10-2014 11:27pm

a148pro wrote: »

What kind of other stuff would be preserved in bogs? I presume they wouldn't have been good locations for habitation?

Interesting question and one mocmo is vastly more qualified to answer.
Until then, there are a few basic ideas about bogs that make them a unique archaeological resource. Organic material can survive in a remarkably well preserved state. Organic material includes flesh and bone, wood, seeds pollen and essentially the remains of anything that lived and died.
So, the range of material that can be preserved in bogs can really present a very varied and detailed picture of past lives.
With regard to whether bogs were habitable places; that depends on when and where.
It's generally thought that the Irish bog bodies (and others) were deposited in pools. The mosses grew, died and more mosses grew, and so the pools became bogs.
The environment was distinctly different to today. Maybe slightly more habitable in some areas more than others.
Toghers for example, (timber walkways) indicate that the landscape was decidedly damp and it was necessary to stay above the sodden ground. Why toghers were constructed into such inhospitable places is still hotly debated.
By contrast, the Cèide fields in Mayo show extensive evidence of a pre-bog landscape that was intensively cultivated and obviously habitable during the Neolithic phase.
Ned Kelly has posed some interesting questions about bog bodies and if memory serves, there is a thread here on the subject - possibly under the title of 'Bog bodies, kingship and sacrifice ', or something similar.

tac foley · 13-10-2014 4:51pm

a148pro wrote: »

What kind of other stuff would be preserved in bogs? I presume they wouldn't have been good locations for habitation?

Have a look at Flag Fen in Eastern England - habitations, causeways and depositions by the thousand.

No bodies have been found though.

As yet.

tac

New bog body discovered in Meath

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