My
curiosity about bog bodies was piqued when I read Snow-Walker. As I mentioned in my review of that, there’s a section
in the third book where the main characters encounter a tribe of people that
live in a swamp. Although initially welcomed into this community, it soon
becomes clear that the swamp people have a nefarious ulterior motive for
keeping the heroes there. Sure enough, a “festival” turns into a ritual of
human sacrifice, and one of the main characters is nearly killed and put into a
bog. (It’s okay; he survived.)
So
I went to my default place for information when I have a passing curiosity
about something: Wikipedia. But Wikipedia’s page was so skimpy, I soon turned
to the more robust resource of the library, and it was there that I found Bog Bodies Uncovered: Solving Europe’s
Ancient Mystery. Miranda Aldhouse-Green addresses this subject so
thoroughly, meticulously, and…let’s face it…gruesomely, that my curiosity was
more than satisfied. I don’t think I’ll need to read anything more on the
subject, thank you very much.
Bog Bodies
Uncovered
uses myriad sources, from primary sources (mostly Roman writings) to
commentaries from anthropologists and archaeologists, to try to draw a clearer
picture of what life was like in ancient times, and what sort of cultures and
circumstances might lead people to put human corpses into bogs. Because most
people found in bogs died from violence, Aldhouse-Green investigates the
various theories of “why”—were these people executed because of some crime,
were they murdered in secret, or was this part of some human sacrifice (as it
was in the fictional Snow-Walker)?
When
I think about the timeline of history, there are some hazy sections. Most of
these are simply time periods I haven’t read much about (yet), such as
pre-1800s Europe, or American history between the War of 1812 and the Civil War
(in 1860). Others are dark because the times were the Dark Ages: Europe during
the decline of the Roman Empire and before the Renaissance. Whatever society
existed that killed and buried these bodies did not leave behind written
accounts. Examples of archaeological evidence, from potsherds to ancient ruins,
are scanty because the climate was more conducive to deteriorating these items
than the desert climate of Ancient Egypt.
Overall,
Aldhouse-Green does a great job of interweaving what experts do know with the various theories that
exist, fairly evaluating hypotheses and then honestly critiquing those she
thinks are flawed. As for her own work, I personally saw only a couple flaws:
1)
The
subject matter, while intensely interesting, was also intensely creepy and/or
disgusting at times. This is not a book that encourages snacking while reading.
2)
A
lot of information is repeated from one chapter to the next. Whenever this
happens in a nonfiction book—and it does happen more often than one might
think—I suspect that chapters were originally a series of articles that were
later compiled into a single volume. I know a lot of readers get annoyed at
this repetition, but I tend not to blame the author in this instance, as an
editor should have gone through and removed any repetitive information when
they decided to publish it in a unified book.
In
other reviews, I also read that some people were upset because the subtitle
(“Solving Europe’s Ancient Mystery”) insinuates that this book explains
everything about bog bodies and answers all the questions that archaeologists,
anthropologists, and historians have asked about them. Personally, I didn’t
think this was a flaw. Fairly early in the book it became clear that “solving”
is an ongoing process. Ultimately, this book doesn’t offer a definitive
picture. The puzzle isn’t put together completely—which makes sense since time
has literally destroyed some of the vital pieces—but Bog Bodies Uncovered nevertheless does a good job of fitting
together the pieces we do have.
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