Old Croghan man

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The Old Croghan Man in the National Museum of Ireland

The Old Croghan Man is a well- preserved Iron Age bog corpse that was found in May 2003 on a bog near Daingean in County Offaly , Ireland . With an estimated height of 198 cm, the man is the tallest historical person found so far. The remains of the Old Croghan man are kept in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin .

Find

The site is near the parish of Oldcroghan in the small, approximately 5 km long and 2 km wide high moor Clonearl Bog , which is part of the extensive moor system of Derrygreenagh in the Irish Midlands . The Clonearl Bog is located immediately southwest of the 234 m high Croghan Hills , a hill made of volcanic ash and basalt that forms the highest point in the surrounding landscape. Archaeologically relevant finds from the surrounding area such as burial mounds , ramparts , a possible hilltop settlement, sacred springs , desolations and traces of agricultural use indicate a continuous presence of people in the landscape around Croghan Hill. Since the 1990s, the south of the moor has been drained by creating drainage ditches and then lowered as a result of drying. The Old Croghan man was finally discovered in May 2003 deepening a drainage ditch in the southern part of Clonearl Bog after an operator from Tipperary Peats Ltd. Remains of a human thorax with both arms discovered in the trough of his mining machine. The exact location of the Old Croghan man could only be determined indirectly during the archaeological follow-up investigation in the moor, through the discovery of some fingernails found in their original position and a fragment of a connective tissue . In contrast, the thorax with the arms were displaced far from it by the peat cutting machine. The missing body parts could no longer be found.
Location: 53 ° 19 ′ 54.5 ″  N , 7 ° 18 ′ 5.5 ″  W Coordinates: 53 ° 19 ′ 54.5 ″  N , 7 ° 18 ′ 5.5 ″  W

Findings

No remains of clothing were seen when the Old Croghan man was found . All he wore was a small, braided leather cord, closed with two rings made of sheet copper, around his left forearm. Both arms and the thorax of the man from the base of the neck to below the chest are completely preserved . The age of the Old Croghan man is estimated to be in his early 20s. Based on calculations of the arm bones, his original height is estimated at 198 cm, which is an extraordinary size not only for the time then, but also for the present. This makes him the greatest historical person found so far . His fingernails were noticeably well-groomed and his body showed no signs of heavy physical labor. There is a deep puncture in the chest region, which is interpreted as a possible cause of death. Cut marks at the base of the neck and lower thorax indicate that he was beheaded and his body was split in two. Deep cuts were found below both of his nipples . Likewise, a wound on one arm indicates a possible defensive injury. The lungs have scarred tissue that indicates possible pleurisy . Examination of the contents of his stomach revealed that his last meal was probably wheat and buttermilk .

Dating

Using 14 C-dating of some tissue samples from the interior of the thorax, the time of death of the Old Croghan man was determined in the period from 361 to 115 BC (2170 ± 30 years BP ). This dating could be confirmed by a sample from the connective tissue, which was in the period between 362 and 175 BC (2189 ± 29 BP). Overall, it can be assumed that the Old Croghan man came to the moor between 362 and 175 BC.

interpretation

The Old Croghan man's body was discovered just three months after the Clonycavan man was found in neighboring County Meath , who died under similar circumstances. The Old Croghan man was found with no clothes preserved, but it is not certain whether he also came into the moor naked, as any clothing made from vegetable raw materials may have been lost due to the moor acids . There are numerous speculations about the background of the leather bracelet worn on the left, a similar bracelet made of fox fur was found on the left upper arm of the Lindow man from the English county of Cheshire . The well-groomed appearance of his fingernails and the lack of evidence of heavy physical labor indicate that the Old Croghan man may have been a member of the local upper class.

Cause of death

There is much speculation about the background to his death. The division of the corpse, its beheading and the severing of the lower body strongly suggest a murder . The Old Corghan man may have been tortured before his death , as suggested by the incisions below the nipples. The wounds on the man's arm are typical of injuries in defensive reactions to attackers. It is possible that the fatal attacks did not come as a surprise to the man, so that he tried to fight them off. According to Eamonn P. Kelly, director of the Archaeological Collection at the National Museum of Ireland, the Old Croghan man, like other bog corpses, may have been sacrificed in order to plead for a good harvest. Kelly also stated that the Old Croghan man was laid down on the border of the historic Tuath Cruacháin and Tuath na Cille territories . He deduces from the fact that there are at least 40 other human bog finds from Ireland on historical borders that these dumps must have served a special purpose.

Living environment

After investigations of two peat profiles near the fingernail deposit, in particular the pollen analysis, the region around the Clonearl Bog had been a wide open landscape that was intensively cultivated since the late Bronze Age . However, these human activities clearly stagnated at the transition to the Iron Age in the middle of the first millennium BC and the landscape became increasingly forested. From the middle of the 4th century BC, an open moor lake formed here in which the body of the Old Croghan man was probably completely sunk and cut off from atmospheric oxygen, which resulted in the excellent preservation of the body parts found. The evaluation of the pollen diagrams shows that around the period of the sinking of the Old Croghan man the landscape was again increasingly deforested and used for arable farming. This falls in a period of intensifying cultural exchange with the British Isles and mainland Europe, which was most likely associated with serious economic , social and political upheavals. Numerous other similar bog body finds from this period suggest there are connections here.

literature

  • Eamonn P. Kelly: Kingship and sacrifice: Iron Age bog bodies and boundaries . In: Archeology Ireleand Heritage Guide . No. 35 . National Museum of Ireland, Dublin 2006 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Gill Plunkett, Nicki J. Whitehouse, Valerie A. Hall, Dan J. Charman, Maarten Blaauw, Eamonn Kelly, Isabella Mulhall: A multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental investigation of the find spot of Aniron Age bog body from Oldcroghan, Co. Offaly, Ireland . In: Journal of Archaeological Science . No. 36 , 2009, ISSN  0305-4403 , p. 265–277 , doi : 10.1016 / j.jas.2008.09.014 (English).
  2. ^ Caitríona Moore, Conor McDermott: 2003: 1533 - Clonearl Demesne, Offaly. Retrieved February 6, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Eamonn P. Kelly: Kingship and sacrifice: Iron Age bog bodies and boundaries . In: Archeology Ireleand Heritage Guide . No. 35 . National Museum of Ireland, Dublin 2006 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Old Croghan man
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Old Croghan Man (English); Oldcroghan Man
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bog corpse
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC BC or 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH between 362 BC BC and 175 BC Chr.
Place of death near Daingean , Ireland