spencer wrote: Having the telly on in the same room as where I was burning the midnight oil doing my accounts, I ended up watching it twice. Rather 'long on drama'. Always fascinating to see how people and artifacts can be naturally preserved. I was initially very impressed that it could even be established that the victim(?) was not a manual worker by the condition of his hands...then belatedly realised that this too was conjecture...as I am a gardener who works year round without gloves. Work being greatly affected by the inclement weather this last winter/spring, it was surprising how little time it took for my gnarly mitts to be transformed back into Fairy Liquid condition, without deliberately trying to achieve this. I do not accept that smooth hands can prove that the body was that of someone of high status, only that they had not done manual work for a few weeks for some reason. Illness? Captivity? A trader? I do not recall whether any DNA or other analysis was done to try to establish the deceaseds origins or whether they had modern descendants, but would have thought that the degree of preservation made an attempt at analysis of this nature possible.
"The bog destroys the DNA, depriving researchers of genetic information and making it very difficult for Irish people to claim descent from these ancients." So says this BBC news report .....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24053119
Know what you mean about hands turning from sandpaper to a 'fairy liquid'smoothness after a summer of gardening but I think there is evidence that some of these sacrifical bog people had fairly clean fingernails, presuming a life without too much hard work. There again the Scandinavian bog (ordinary) people were executed in the same manner and bound down in the bog by stakes so that they would not rise up again in the after world.
Tis a fascinating subject ;)
Reply | with quote | Posted by moss 29th November 2013ce 13:21 |
4,000 year old case; The body in the bog (moss, Nov 28, 2013, 18:27)- Re: 4,000 year old case; The body in the bog (tjj, Nov 28, 2013, 19:26)
- Re: 4,000 year old case; The body in the bog (ryaner, Nov 28, 2013, 22:27)
- Re: 4,000 year old case; The body in the bog (Rhiannon, Nov 29, 2013, 07:15)
- Re: 4,000 year old case; The body in the bog (PMM, Nov 29, 2013, 09:56)
- Re: 4,000 year old case; The body in the bog (spencer, Nov 29, 2013, 11:45)
- Re: 4,000 year old case; The body in the bog (moss, Nov 29, 2013, 13:21)
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