27/08/2026
In the spring of 2003, three months apart, two peat harvesting machines in the Irish midlands turned up the remains of two men who had been lying in the bog for well over two thousand years.
A raised bog is a preserving jar. There is no oxygen in it, the water is cold and acidic, and the peat itself contains compounds that tan skin like leather. The result is that when these men came up, their hair, their fingernails and the pores of their skin were still there. One of them had used a resin in his hair that had been carried to Ireland from somewhere in southwest Europe, which tells you a good deal about Iron Age trade. The other stood about six feet six inches, an extraordinary height for the period, and had the manicured hands of someone who had never done heavy work.
Both had been killed deliberately, and with a thoroughness that was clearly not about killing them efficiently. They are in the National Museum in Dublin now, and standing in front of them is a strange and quiet experience.
