The Bog People of Florida
In 1982, at Windover Farm, Florida, a black hoe operator who was digging peat from the bottom of a pond, found some skeletons buried in the peat. The environment preserved the bones so well that investigators from Florida’s state university initially believed they were only a few hundred years old. However, radiocarbon dating revealed them to be between 5000-8000 years old.
Further excavation revealed the skeletal remains of 168 people deliberately buried within the pond. Whoever buried them placed them on their left-hand sides, heads directed west but facing north. Each was accompanied with grave goods and wrapped in woven fabrics. They were quite unlike the lonely burials in European bogs. Many of the skeletons showed signs of illnesses and disabilities that would have afflicted the sufferer for some years -but which they survived because somebody cared for them.
Despite being defleshed, some soft tissue did remain in some of the bodies. In around 100 cases, brain tissue was found intact, which suggests whoever buried the bodies did so within 24-48 hours. DNA sequencing was possible and indicates the Windover bodies were of Asian origin had a rare haplogroup. They were also all related, meaning Windover pond was, in fact, a family cemetery, that experts estimate was in use for over one hundred years.
Usually, bone in Florida degrades quickly because of high acid levels in the soil. But in the case of the Windover farm bog bodies, the bone survived because of a change in the water table. When the first bodies were deposited, Windover pond was relatively shallow with a thin layer of peat at its bottom. Well above the water table, its only water source was the rain. The lack of peat also meant that the flesh from the interred bodies gradually decayed.
However, with time the water table began to rise until it was level with the pond. At the same time, the peat layer thickened. In European bogs, one of the effects of the acid conditions of sphagnum moss is to leach calcium from bones, which explains why the skeletons of European bog bodies do not always survive in excellent condition. However, at Windover, the ph. of the water was neutral rather than acid- preserving the bones if not the flesh.
Although they are ancient, the Florida Bog bodies are by no means the oldest in the world. To meet the most ancient bog people, we must return to northern Europe.