The Discovery of the First Bog Body

When we think of prehistoric things they may think of things of the past, but with the breakthrough unearthing of the Kennewick Man transformed peoples thought of prehistoric existences. The Kennewick Man or “The Ancient Man” is the name given to the skeletal remains of a man found in Kennewick, Washington on July 28,1996. A pair of bystanders accidentally found the skeleton remains of the Kennewick Man. With the discovery it has brought up many disagreements about what to do with the Kennewick man. The question now is who is really responsible for the remains of the Kennewick Man.

Mungo man is one of the most important discoveries made in Australia which was believed to have lived approximately 40 thousand years ago. His remains were discovered in New South Wales Lake Mungo in 1972. The discovery of Mungo Man shows that the Indigenous population in Australia has been around for over 40 thousand years. It shows the earliest evidence of human existence in Australia. The body of Mungo Man was buried with ochre and his hands crossed and this shows that these traditions were performed over 40 thousand years ago and passed down from generation to generation. To put ochre on the body and have a burial symbolises that this tradition and culture has been around for a long time and the evidence is a reminder of the history of the land and the people.

At some point in our lives, we all come to realize that death is a part of life. Cultural diversity provides a wide variety of lifestyles and traditions for each of the unique groups of people in our world. Within these different cultures, the rituals associated with death and burial can also be uniquely diverse. Many consider ritualistic traditions that differ from their own to be somewhat strange and often perceive them as unnatural. A prime example would be the burial rituals of the Native American people.

Historians and archaeologists investigated Tollund man extensively through the wonderful preservations of his body which gave them hard evidence to support their theories about Tollund Man’s death. The Tollund Man was found on the 6th of May 1950 by two brothers at Silkeborg, Denmark, in a peat bog. He was positioned on his side in a cradle position, naked with a leather belt around his waist, a pointed sheepskin cap with a leather strap that was positioned firmly under his chin and a noose around his neck. The substances in the peat bog prevented the body from decomposing. The bog contains Sphagnum moss which creates acids in the water and grows a glass covering over the water blocking out oxygen and keeping in heat, all in which cause

Though the intensive study of the body and the possessions found with it; various aspects (i.e. diet, appearance, weapons, clothing, cultural practices and rituals) of the time in which Ötzi lived can be uncovered and furthermore understood. The Iceman Ötzi provides us with an exceptional insight into appearance and lifestyle of a Copper Age man living in the Alps over 5,000 years ago.

An unscrupulous archaeologist by the name of Henirich Hochstetter excavated the Shoen-Tell site in Turkey in the late 1920s. Hochstetter was interested more in antiquities than in data, so he provided little substantive information tot eh professional community about his dig or his findings. However, a conscientious assistant of Hochstetter’s, Roxanne Browne, managed to collect detailed information on fifty of the burials Hochstetter plundered. Her data is

Charles Monet was a Frenchman who moved to western Kenya, Africa, and worked for a sugar factory. Monet mostly kept to himself, and he spent most of his time with prostitutes. On New Year’s Day, in 1980, Charles and one of his “mistresses” went on a hike up Mount Elgon. The two parked down in a valley, just below a cave, known as Kitum Cave. They went into the cave to explore, and eventually came across a pillar filled with bats. The bats were insect eaters, and they excreted ‘guano’, an ooze of digested insects. Perhaps Monet put his hand in the guano.

After reading Stiff, it was surprising to discover that there are so many different ways that cadavers can be used. For example, cadavers are used to see the different stages of decomposition, as test dummies, as compost, and as art. Until I read this book, I thought that you were simply buried or cremated when you die. Further, I

Death by Theory, written by Adrian Praetzellis, is an engaging and informational book written in a novelistic way that engages the reader to think critically about archaeology. Compared to other forms of informational text about archaeology, Death by Theory teaches archaeological theory by telling a story that incorporates the different theories of archaeology in a realistic setting. While standard textbooks about the theory of archaeology can come off a bit dry, Death by Theory skips the standard definitions and applies this in a way that aids the reader in understanding how these theories and terms can be applied in an actual archaeological setting. This text illustrates the adventure of plucky archaeologist Dr. Hannah Green and her nephew Sean Doyle as they seek to explain an unusual archaeological site while dealing with real life archaeological struggles. The protagonists deal with an egotistical colleague of Dr. Green who sought her out as a consult on a particularly strange archaeological case. All the while dealing with cults, the media, and incompatible data.

The body of the man was found largely unclothed and no items or objects were found alongside him. Though upon further inspection scientists when performing an autopsy found that the man stomach and intestines had been extremely well preserved. When analysing the stomach content they were able to decipher the man’s last meal and what his average diet consisted of. Scientists and archaeologists were able to conclude that the man’s last meal was most likely a form of porridge that was accompanied by over 50 different herbs, spices and grasses. Also among analysing the body it was noted that the man fingerprints were still able to be taken suggesting that he did not take part in any hard physical

In the 7th Century AD, an important individual was buried inside a ship in East Anglia. The ship most likely hauled up from the nearby river, a burial chamber was built in the center of the massive vessel. Luckily grave robbers did not reach the ship burial as they did other nearby burial mounds, because the ship was rich in history and artifacts including gold, silver, bowls, spoons, weapons, drinking horns and much more. Originally discovered in 1939, the artifacts and ship burial have been closely examined another 2 times. The artifacts found within the magnificent burial site have created a lot of stir over the past 80 years. Theories have changed on the significance and origins of the artifacts due to changing hypothesis or the arrival of new and different evidence. Because there are dozens of artifacts within Sutton Hoo, this paper will be focusing on a select four of them including; the ‘baptismal’ spoons, the Merovingian coin hoard, the whetstone, and the scepter. According to scholars over the past 80 years, how have opinions, evidence, or assumptions changed relating to these exact artifacts? This paper will be taking a contemporary look at the perspectives of different scholars on different artifacts and, finally, analyze why these perspectives have shifted or changed over time. To my knowledge, scholars do give credit to previous perspectives, but no scholar has every brought all the perspectives together and analyzed their findings.

The Rising Star Cave system is located in the Cradle of Humanity World Heritage Site above Johannesburg, South Africa. (Wilford) It was here that the now extinct Hominin species, Homo Naledi, was found. This discovery gave scientists great insight to the beginnings of the Genus Homo. The Homo Naledi is believed to be the link between Genus Homo and Genus Australopithecus. This site is regarded as an ancient, and possibly the first, burial grounds of the entirety of the Genus Homo. With the knowledge is is thought that our understanding of our ancestors is warped. Scientists used to think that our ancestors were at a much lower level of thinking than us, these ‘cave men’ were actually rather smart and self aware enough so that they had a burial site for their dead. How one skeleton was positioned and the fact that there was an ancient cougar paw with marks that showed the paw had been severed leads scientists to believe that this was a highly regarded person which entails the Homo Naledi to have a system of caste. (Townsley)

The Narrabeen man body was discovered in North of Sydney, Octavia Street and Ocean street near a bus shelter. His body wasn’t well preserved because the sand was quite warm and also his body was under the sand for 4000 years.

Although, no credible information regarding burials has been discovered, Headrick claims the highest-ranking ancestors underwent mortuary bundles, a treatment in which their remains are wrapped in assemblages (chapter 3). Mortuary bundles have not been found at Teotihuacan, thus, Headricks supports her claims by presenting information regarding mortuary bundles found in the Classical Maya and the Mixtec. Assimilating information about the treatment in those cultures and the discovery of the three stone masks, Headrick proposes that stone masks were likely tied to mortuary bundles as they are largely depicted in the city’s artistic record (chapter 3). Moreover, Headrick further supports her claim by comparing an archeological find of a ceramic bust with a mask to a similar one elsewhere in Mesoamerica (chapter 3). Headrick’s argument regarding mortuary bundles is convincing and the evidence to support her claim is

Throughout history, the mummy has been stereotyped as no more than an egyptian deceased wrapped in cloth, whose spirit returns from the dead in order to haunt mankind. However, as literature and mythology present, Mummies exist in modern context promptly as scorned lovers, scientists, past rulers, wronged souls, or a combination of all. In deconstructing the Mummy, the statement of “We are creatures that require social interaction” often comes to mind. After all, even in death we are infrequently capable of surviving without the companionship of family, loved ones, friends, or the presence of another soul.