Old Croghan Man — a preserved human body over 2,000 years old

Old Croghan Man is a well-preserved bog body from the Iron Age, discovered in Ireland in 2003. The body, which belonged to a young man in his mid-20s, had several cuts and a noose around the neck, leading experts to speculate that he may have suffered a violent attack or been sacrificed.

The low oxygen and acidic conditions in the bog helped to mummify the body, preserving skin, hair, and internal organs. Old Croghan Man’s discovery has provided valuable insights into the lives of the ancient Celts in Ireland, and his body is now on display at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. Ireland’s bogs hold secrets that rarely come to light, yet, offer so many details when they do.

Old Croghan Man and Clonycavan Man are two bog bodies now on display at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. And Isabella Mulhall, ᴀssistant Curator of Antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland, knows their stories up close and personal. The bog bodies on display at the museum date back to the Iron Age. One was actually found not far from Galway. It has been thousands of years since they saw the light of day. They are preserved to a remarkable degree by the conditions in the bog. Mulhall says, “Bogs are dark and wet, and they have sphagnum moss, which somehow creates the perfect conditions to keep a body intact.

Those conditions preserve the bones and the skin and some of the soft tissue and even internal organs that we study.  These bodies have hair on them, textiles are intact, and wood, even jewelry. Oldcroghan Man bog body, 2003:14 “Those conditions do cause up to 15% shrinkage in a body so we have to take that into account when we figure how tall someone was, and the chemicals seem to turn a body and hair redder than they were in life, but so much of them is still there our team has been able to piece together what they ate before they died, what happened to them before they were put in the bog, health conditions prior to death.

“It is amazing, and you can get so much more from a bog body than you could ever actually get from decomposed bodies and skeletons.“ The bog bodies all appear to have been 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed in violent ways before they ended up there. Many were high in status among their communities, and most are missing limbs.  But they all tell personal stories that make up a history never before understood. The bog bodies have all been discovered through peat harvesting. Harvesting efforts have unearthed them over time. All have been found by mistake, not by a concerted effort to find them.

Related Posts

Dolmen de Bagneux: A Monumental Testament to Neolithic Ingenuity

The Dolmen de Bagneux, located in the town of Bagneux near Saumur in the Loire Valley of France, is one of the largest and most impressive megalithic…

The Colosseum: A Timeless Marvel of Ancient Rome

The Colosseum, an enduring masterpiece of ancient Roman architecture, stands as a symbol of Rome’s imperial power and cultural heritage. Commissioned by Emperor Vespasian in AD 72…

The Transformation of Teotihuacan Pyramid: From Overgrown Hill to Mexico’s Historical Icon

From 1900 to 2022, the Teotihuacan Pyramid in Mexico experienced a profound transformation that unveiled its ancient splendor. Once mistaken for a natural hill due to its…

Unearthing Royal Legacy: The Chariot of Thutmose IV

In 1903, renowned archaeologist Howard Carter made a groundbreaking discovery in tomb KV 43, located in the Valley of the Kings: the nearly 3,400-year-old chariot of Thutmose…

The Enigmatic Tale of Yde Girl: A 2,000-Year-Old Mystery

The Discovery That Shocked a Village In the spring of 1897, the quiet village of Yde in the Netherlands became the center of an archaeological sensation. Two…

Watchers of Time: The Great Gallery of Horseshoe Canyon

Watchers of Time: The Great Gallery of Horseshoe Canyon

Tucked away in the remote wilderness of southern Utah’s Canyonlands, far from the hum of cities and the rush of highways, lies one of the most profound…