The Mysterious Bog Bodies of Northern Europe

Six bodies connected by a common pattern of killing reveal the rituals of an Iron-Age people

Around 300 BC, a well-built man, 1.98 m tall (6’6") and 25 years old, was carried to a swamp near Croghan Hill in modern-day County Offaly, Ireland. He was stabbed several times. A fatal wound to his chest punctured his left lung. He tried to protect himself, inflicting a wound on his left arm.

After his death, he was beheaded and disemboweled, and his nipples were slashed. His killers then tied his arms to a heavy object and buried him naked in the bog.

Peat cutters in Ireland discovered the body in June 2003, prompting initial speculation that it was a recent homicide victim. A closer look revealed that it was a “bog body” or “bog mummy,” many of which have been discovered in Northern Europe since the nineteenth century.

The victim was named the Old Croghan Man after the adjacent Croghan Hill, an ancient burial mound.

This was not a case of murder or random, mindless violence. It was a planned killing. The Old Croghan Man, like many other bog bodies, was the victim of human sacrifice.

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