Bog bodies: Face to Face with the Past

by Melanie Giles Manchester University Press Dec 2020 £25 pp328 pb isbn 9781526150189 Reviewed by Neil Redfern dfern

The term “bog bodyd” body” is one of the most evocativie evocative in archaeologyg archaeology. Al Along with “mummmym” “mummy” i it immediately takes us to a place in the remote past we rarely visit – the place where we literally see the faces of long dead humans staring back at us. They hold our fascinations like no other ancient remains, and they command huge amounts of forensic study. Mel Giles’ book is no different: it takes us into the world of bog bodies, as the title declares, face to face with the past.

Yet this book is so much more than just an archaeological text setting out what we know about these fascinating remains. Giles takes us on a journey that is poignant, moving and often deeply personal. She reflects on her own loss and bereavement in a manner that serves only to humanise these remains. For these were people whose lives were in many ways no different from our own. It is how we choose to portray and discuss them that is so relevant, and it is here that Giles’ approach transcends mere archaeological facts. Yes, the detail is there: the forensic study is there, and the gruesome, often harsh h information on the untimely and a sometimes violent deaths are co considered. Giles lays this all before us. But it is the wider context that she explores that makes this book so much more than a standard teaching text.

By exploring how we have over time encountered and studied these remains, and revealing how some bog bodies are of known people whose lives and demises are actually recorded, she adds depth and meaning to our current fascination with older examples. This wider context continues in an exploration of how bog bodies were used in the past to justify national aspirations and narratives, how they have come to portray parts of our landscapes as alien and dangerous places, and how these narratives still shape our relationship and understanding today. We are asked to reflect that in the past “bogs” were not the remote, harsh, unproductive landscapes we sometimes imagine today. They are in fact part of a complex network of habitats that sustain life and communities.

Giles covers this wider context so well, drawing in so many parallels and related research – the poetry of Seamus Heaney, contemporary accounts of discovery, folklore and mythology – that you might be left asking, is this archaeology at all? Well, I for one absolutely revel in this approach – it added so much meaning and relevance for me. I have so much empathy in how Giles relates her work to her own sense of bereavement, having lost my own mother recently, that I am left saying, “Hell yes – this is archaeology”.

Archaeology of the very best kind – the kind that helps you explore what it is to be human.