Bog body from Lindow I

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The bog body of Lindow I , also known as Lindow's wife , was discovered on May 13, 1983 by peat cutters in Lindow Moss, England, near Mobberly near Wilmslow in the north-west county of Cheshire .

Find history

Lindow I's bog body was discovered on May 13, 1983 by peat cutters Andy Mold and Stephen Dooley. First, they noticed an unusual object on the conveyor belt that resembled a soccer ball in shape and size. Jokingly that it was a dinosaur egg, they took the object off the conveyor belt to examine it more closely. After removing the adhering peat debris from him, they recognized the incompletely preserved human head with attached remnants of soft tissues , the brain, an eye, optic nerve and hair . The police summoned by the finders suspected a crime, confiscated the find and started an investigation into murder . Today only the bony remains of the skull remain of the find after improper handling as evidence by the police . The remains of the skull were anthropologically described in 1983 as probably belonging to a 30-50 year old woman. More recent studies, however, feed doubts about the earlier sex determination.
Location: 53 ° 19 ′ 23.1 ″  N , 2 ° 16 ′ 10.8 ″  W Coordinates: 53 ° 19 ′ 23.1 ″  N , 2 ° 16 ′ 10.8 ″  W

Only about a year later on August 1, 1984, Andy Mold discovered a second bog body, the Lindow man ( Lindow II ), in the same bog and only about 250 meters away .

Entanglements

The police summoned by the finders suspected the remains of the missing wife of local Peter Reyn-Bardt and initiated an investigation into murder . Reyn-Bardt had long been suspected of having murdered his wife Malika, with whom he was married of convenience , in the 1950s and of having disposed of her body. When the police presented him with the remains of the skull, Reyn-Bardt confessed to the murder of his wife. In December 1983 he was charged with murder in Chester Crown Court. A 14 C-dating of the skull remnants carried out in the meantime resulted in a dating of 1740 ± 80 BP , i.e. a time of death around the year 250 AD, and refuted the present skull as evidence. Due to his confession , Reyn-Bardt was found guilty of the murder of his wife and convicted, even if Malika's body has not yet been found.

literature

  • IM Stead, JB Bourke, Don Brothwell : Lindow Man - The Body in the Bog . British Museum Publications, London 1986, ISBN 0-7141-1386-7 (English).
  • 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 (Dutch, original title: Vereeuwigd in het veen . Translated by Henning Stilke).
  • Don Reginald Brothwell: The bog man and the archeology of people . Ed .: British Museum / Trustees. 4th edition. British Museum Publications, London 1991, ISBN 0-7141-1384-0 (English).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Don Reginald Brothwell: The bog man and the archeology of people . Ed .: British Museum / Trustees. 4th edition. British Museum Publications, London 1991, ISBN 0-7141-1384-0 , pp. 15, fig. 5 .
  2. ^ Van der Sanden: Mummies from the moor . P.56.
  3. ^ Brothwell: The bog man and the archeology of people . P. 12.
personal data
SURNAME Bog body from Lindow I
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mrs. von Lindow; Lindow Woman (English)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English bog corpse
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century
DATE OF DEATH at 250
Place of death at Mobberly , England