On a misty day in August 1984, Andy Mould and Eddie Slack were cutting peat from a bog in Lindow Moss, England. Suddenly, the two men froze, because a human foot was sticking up out of the peat!
The men called the police, but it turned out to be a job for an archaeologist instead. Lindow Man, as he came to be called, had been dead for about 2,300 years.
Scientists weren’t completely surprised by the discovery of Lindow Man. In fact, about 2,000 bodies have been found in European bogs, and one was discovered as early as 1450. Most of the bog bodies seem to have died between 800 B.C. and A.D. 400.
These bodies were preserved whole in the peat. The very conditions that produce peat—a lack of oxygen in the mud and a high acid content—are just right for preserving flesh.
