Man of Datgen

Man of Datgen

The man of Dätgen is a bog body from the second to the fourth century , which in 1959 in Great Moor near Dätgen in Rendsburg-Eckernförde in Schleswig-Holstein was found during peat-cutting. At first only the man's body was found and it was not until six months later, in 1960, that the severed head with the characteristic Suebi knot hairstyle was discovered. The bog body is now in the exhibition section Death and Beyond of the Archaeological Permanent Exhibition of the Archaeological State Museum Schloss Gottorf in Schleswig.

Reference

The Great Moor near Dätgen in September 2011 with a view towards the site

The Great Moor consists of two basins that are connected by a wider area. It lies between the communities of Dätgen and Loop and east of the village of Schülp b. Nortorf in the Nortorfer Land office . The eastern end of the moor borders on federal motorway 7 . It has a maximum extension of 1900 m in north-south direction and 3000 m in west-east direction. The site itself is on the western part of the Great Moor on the so-called government moor belonging to the municipality of Dätgen , on parcel II. Line south , which borders the parcel Bockmeyers Heide in the southeast . The site is about 300 to 500 meters from the solid shore; that is, the man was laid there at a time when the surface of the bog was accessible, possibly during frost in winter.
Location: 54 ° 9 '45.3 "  N , 9 ° 55' 42.7"  E Coordinates: 54 ° 9 '45.3 "  N , 9 ° 55' 42.7"  E

Find history

In 1906, in the north of the western basin, workers found a bundle of repeatedly patched clothing in the Great Moor, which had long been used for peat extraction. According to Johanna Mestorf, it was a coat , breeches, remains of a jacket, a belt and the remains of a cowhide. A week before the bog corpse of Dätgen was found, several sticks made of birch wood and a roughly trimmed, knee-shaped bent wood, about 61 cm long, which resembles the shaft of a Bronze Age spout ax , were found 400 meters south . About 5 meters away, workers came across the remains of a burial urn covered with a round oak wood lid from the Roman Empire and the remains of corpse burns. A connection with the discovery of the bog body from Dätgen is considered unlikely.

hull

The man from Dätgen was discovered in September 1959 by prisoners who were used to cut peat in the Great Moor . The peat layer was removed here by machine and the body of the corpse was only discovered because the peat wall, which was irregularly cut by the excavator, was smoothed out manually with shovels. The workers initially thought the find was the remains of an animal, with parts of the corpse being damaged and removed from the site. The find was made on September 8, 1959 by Karl Wilhelm Struve from the Museum Schloss Gottorf and Prof. Dr. L. Aletsee from the Botanical Institute of Kiel University . When they arrived, the pelvis and legs of the bog corpse were still in the found position. The body was stretched out on its back with the legs facing northwest and the torso facing southeast. It had been pinned to the ground with three thin birch stakes about 150 to 250 cm long, sharpened at one end. The stakes had been driven into the ground at an angle of about 20 °, protruding over the body, two on the east side and one on the west side of the hull. A fourth birch trunk, about 47 cm long, was stuck vertically between the thighs. The left arm lay along the trunk with the hand on the left thigh. The right arm was brought out of position, with several finger bones lost; its original location could no longer be determined. When the legs were exposed, it was found that the skin of the corpse was light in color and after a short time it had darkened considerably due to oxidation in the air. The peat layer at this point was still 95 to 100 cm thick, but the original surface area was much higher, as peat was extracted here a few years earlier. Apart from a woolen thread around the left ankle, no other clothing components were observed. For the purpose of salvage, the site was exposed on all sides, secured with a board pushed underneath and packed in a wooden crate and transported to the museum. There the block was further excavated (exposed) in the laboratory . The head of the corpse could not be found in the further excavations within a radius of 2.5 meters. In the future, Struve and Aletsee asked the workers to look out for such finds and offered them a reward in case the head was found.

head

About six months after the hull was recovered, foreman Schröder came across the head, which was 3.1 meters west of the hull in the same peat layer. First he noticed three sharpened and crossed birch clubs stuck in the ground, under which a mop of hair protruded. Schröder suspected the missing head and pulled the pupil's teacher Dr. hc Weber added. Since the site of the find was in the working direction of the approaching peat cutting machine, the find was salvaged from the museum before the experts arrived. To do this, the head embedded in the peat was pricked out of the peat layer in a block with an edge length of about 50 cm.

Preservation

The corpse lay in a layer of white peat , about 30 cm above the corpse the peat layer was more strongly decomposed, which indicates that the dead person was deposited in a water-filled ditch . The body must have been completely submerged there and cut off from the air supply, and the moor acids dissolved in the water inhibited the body's decomposition process . The dead man's head was most likely also placed in a water-filled ditch. In the museum laboratory, the body was removed from the peat layer. To secure the original position of the corpse, a plaster cast was made from the imprint in the peat. After the anthropological examination, the skin of the corpse was bleached with a perhydrol solution in order to restore the color impression of the skin when it was found. The corpse was dehydrated with alcohol solutions and then prepared with lanolin to prevent shrinkage. In order to protect the preserved remains from infestation by fungi , spores , bacteria or insects , the body was additionally treated with pentachlorophenol .

Findings

The first anthropological examination of the corpse, which had been superficially freed from the adhering peat residues, was carried out by Prof. Dr. U. Schaefer, the anatomical study by Prof. Dr. TH Schiebler from the Anatomical Institute of the University of Kiel. The state of preservation of the corpse was good except for the damage caused by the peat cut. All intestines were almost completely preserved and could be examined in detail. Their shape corresponded to those of living people, but had shrunk considerably due to the breakdown of the parenchymal cells . The original height during the man's lifetime was calculated from the bones of the left arm and leg to be around 170 cm. The status of the epiphyseal plates at the joint ends indicates an age of about 30 years. When it was brought to the museum, the skin, which was still waxy white when it was salvaged, was already darkened by oxidation. A penetration of the skin by plant roots observed with many bog corpses was only very slight in the man von Dätgen. The fingernails and toenails have undamaged and smooth cut edges, which suggest that the man was not doing heavy physical work. The sex determination as a male individual took place on the basis of the pelvic shape typical for men, the general appearance of the bone structure and the strongly pronounced muscular ridges on the upper arms. The man's genitals ( penis and scrotum ) were completely absent, but the beginnings of the skin flaps that were preserved also indicated the male sex of the deceased. Even with the help of several specialists, it was not possible to clarify whether the deceased was emasculated or whether there was another cause for the lack of the genitals. The advocates of the emasculation theory base their assumption on the otherwise well-preserved areas of skin in the vicinity of the missing genitals.

The man's skin and skeleton show numerous injuries, some of which were caused by massive stabs and blows. On the chest there is a gaping, about 38 mm long puncture point leading into the heart from a sharp object that pierced the fifth rib. Another 14 mm long puncture is also located in the chest region. On the back, the body of the dead person shows a third puncture about 32 mm long above the hip bone. At this point, the edge of the hip bone - near the sacrum - also shows a punch mark and severed pieces of bone that came from a punch from the right. The first cervical vertebra has two notches on the front. The seventh thoracic vertebra, which is no longer preserved, was most likely severed by a blow from behind and above, as indicated by the severed vertebral processes on the neighboring vertebrae. Presumably with this blow the head was finally separated from the torso, after previously unsuccessful attempts to behead the man from the front. The third lumbar vertebra was damaged by a blow from above and the fourth lumbar vertebra from a blow from below. The long bones of the right half of the body and the left pelvic area show further fractures and splintering. According to the position of the corpse in the peat, however, some of the latter fractures, as well as the displacement of the right hip joint, most likely arose postmortem .

What was noticeable about the man's skeleton were the arm bones, which were much more pronounced on the left, indicating that the man might be left-handed .

The examination of the peat layers around the body of the dead body in connection with the pollen analysis showed that the water-filled valley was deepened somewhat before the man's body was sunk there.

Last meal

The intestinal tract contained larger amounts of digested food residues, whereas the stomach contained significantly less content. From a sample of the stomach contents, spur , dock knotweed , millet , wheat as well as additions of white goose foot , hederich , remains of moss leaves and a piece of hair from a person, remains of four animal hairs from the deer family ( Cervidaen ) such as roe deer, deer, Elk or reindeer and grains of quartz sand can be determined. In addition to human hair , the sample from the small intestine contained the components identified in the stomach. In the sample from the rectum , particles of charcoal, a cut human hair and a red wool fiber about 0.5 mm long were also identified. In summary, his last meals included millet, wheat and some meat, possibly deer and some wild crops . A few seeds from weeds are believed to have accidentally got into the diet.

Missing clothes

Apart from the wool thread looped and knotted around the left ankle , no further traces or remains of clothing or jewelry were observed. The wool thread has a length of 54 cm, a diameter of about 1.3 mm and consists of two threads twisted in the S direction , which were spun in the Z direction . However, it is not certain whether the man from Dätgen also entered the moor naked, as any clothing made of vegetable fibers may have passed away in the acidic moor environment . The wool thread was most likely not used to tie the man, as he is too weak for that.

head

The preserved scalp hair with a suebian knot hairstyle .

According to the investigating scientists, the severed head almost certainly belongs to the body found six months earlier. On the basis of the pollen analysis of the peat layer, the head was pressed down on the edge of a ditch filled with water, and there were no signs of digging into the bottom of the hole. The cranial bones of the head had largely passed through the acidic moor environment. The brain was in the head as a strongly shrunk brown mass, which still showed clear structures of the brain convolutions in the X-ray image. The man wore the very long hair on his head tied in a Suebi knot . The location of the knot on the remains of the head indicates that he wore the Suebi knot - contrary to historical traditions - not above the temple, but on the back of the head. Around 4 to 4.5 mm long, frizzy whiskers were visible on the face . The hair is colored brown by storage in the moor water; in some places, especially inside the hair knot, light blonde hair can still be seen .

Cause of death

Several of the injuries inflicted on the man would have led to certain death on their own, for example a heart attack, decapitation, injuries to the spine or castration , if any. The injuries to the cervical spine indicate that an attempt was first made to behead the man from the front, which was eventually achieved with a cut from the back. The exact sequence of the individual injuries can no longer be reliably reconstructed today, but science assumes that the actual cause of death is the heart attack and that it was only then beheaded. The multiple killing (overkill) present here can also be observed in numerous other bog bodies, such as the Lindow man or the man from Osterby .

Dating

On the basis of the pollen analysis from the peat profiles drawn at the site and ¹⁴ C-dates of three samples from peat layers below and above the corpse in the 1960s, it was previously assumed that the man was around the middle of the 2nd century BC. . AD was killed. A more recent ¹⁴ C dating of a hair sample, on the other hand, showed a time of death between 135 and 385 AD.

Attempts at interpretation

The man from Dätgen seemed to have had a prominent social position in his more or less extensive environment due to his physical characteristics such as well-groomed fingernails and toenails as well as his long hair. Due to the found situation of the man, the multiple killing with beheading, the possible emasculation and his body parts stuck separately in the moor, Karl Wilhelm Struve put a so-called punishment sacrifice thesis up for discussion in the 1960s, based on reports by Publius Cornelius Tacitus in his Germania . Thereafter, the man may have been punished for an offense such as adultery , murder, or misdemeanor at a sanctuary, and then sacrificed. In addition, he put other theories that were common at the time up for discussion, although he also expressed strong concerns about the penalty theory. As a more likely theory, he cites a privately motivated murder in connection with the idea of ​​preventing the dead from returning through multiple killings, mutilation and separate burial in a seemingly sterile place .

literature

• Karl Wilhelm Struve: The bog body from Dätgen. A contribution to the discussion on the punishment victim thesis . In: Institute for Pre- and Protohistory of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Ed.): Offa. Reports and Communications on prehistory, early history, etc. Medieval archeology . tape 24 . Wachholtz, 1967, ISSN  0078-3714 , p. 33-76 .
• Wijnand van der Sanden : Mummies from the moor. The prehistoric and protohistoric bog bodies from northwestern Europe . Batavian Lion International, Amsterdam 1996, ISBN 90-6707-416-0 , pp. 67, 84, 180 (Dutch, original title: Vereeuwigd in het veen . Translated by Henning Stilke).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl Wilhelm Struve: The bog body from Dätgen. A contribution to the discussion on the punishment victim thesis . In: Institute for Pre- and Protohistory of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Ed.): Offa. Reports and Communications on prehistory, early history, etc. Medieval archeology . tape 24 . Wachholtz, 1967, ISSN  0078-3714 , p. 34, fig. 1 .
2. ↑ Johanna Mestorf : The remains of clothes from the moor of Daetgen, Ksp. Nortorf . In: Report of the Schleswig-Holstein Museum of Patriotic Antiquities at the University of Kiel . tape 44 . Lipsius & Tischer, Kiel 1907, p. 17-20 .
3. ↑ Albrecht Ketelsen: The conservation of the bog body from Dätgen . In: The taxidermist . tape 12 , 1966, ISSN  0032-6542 , pp. 35-41 .
4. ↑ Otto Martin: Report on the investigation of the food residues in the bog body of Dätgen . In: Institute for Pre- and Protohistory of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Ed.): Offa. Reports and Communications on prehistory, early history, etc. Medieval archeology . tape 24 . Wachholtz, 1967, ISSN  0078-3714 , p. 77-78 .
5. ↑ L. Aletsee: Dating attempt of the bog corpses from Dätgen . In: Institute for Pre- and Protohistory of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Ed.): Offa. Reports and Communications on prehistory, early history, etc. Medieval archeology . tape 24 . Wachholtz, 1967, ISSN  0078-3714 , p. 79-83 .
6. ↑ Johannes van der Plicht, Wijnand van der Sanden , AT Aerts, HJ Streurman: Dating bog bodies by means of ¹⁴ C-AMS . In: Journal of Archaeological Science . tape 31 , no. 4 , 2004, ISSN  0305-4403 , p. 471–491 , doi : 10.1016 / j.jas.2003.09.012 (English, ub.rug.nl [PDF; 388 kB ; accessed on June 2, 2010]).
7. ^ Karl Wilhelm Struve: The bog body from Dätgen. A contribution to the discussion on the punishment victim thesis . In: Institute for Pre- and Protohistory of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Ed.): Offa. Reports and Communications on prehistory, early history, etc. Medieval archeology . tape 24 . Wachholtz, 1967, ISSN  0078-3714 , p. 39–71, here especially pp. 71 + 72 .

Web links

• History of the community of Dätgen. Office Nortorfer Land, accessed December 5, 2011 .