The Sacred Nature of Bogs
Bogs were marginal places. Composed of both earth and water, they occupied a hinterland in nature as they were neither one thing or another. To the ancient people of North-West Europe, such places were sacred as they were nexus points; places where two different states of being met. Where one world met another. Where spirits lived. For although local people would harvest bog plants and raid the peat for bog iron, which was essential for making tools and weapons, they could not cultivate these remote, damp spots. Strange miasmas and lights could lead the unwary to a watery death. Simply put, bogs were a realm of the gods and as such were treated with respect.
The bogs of Schleswig- Holstein, Germany have yielded several bog bodies. They have also given up other things. In 1947, the bog yielded up two naked, larger-than-life carvings; one styled as male, the other female. Each was carved from a single tree branch sometime around the second century BC. The imposing figures were initially fixed upright and would have been visible from some distance away. They would have dominated and terrified any onlookers with their wide staring eyes and open mouths. Evidence of fires and feasting around them suggests that they were the center of ceremonials and represented the gods of the bog.
If the bogs were the place of the gods, it is hardly likely that anyone would unceremoniously dump unwanted bodies in them. However, they did make offerings to them. Along with the bog bodies, Europe’s peat bogs have yielded a variety of spectacular finds, which were deposited, not accidentally lost. Swords, deliberately broken or ‘decommissioned’ have been found in the bogs, as well as household objects and royal regalia. The offerings made represented the best people could afford. One of the most spectacular rediscovered bog offerings was the Gundestrup Cauldron, which was deposited in Denmark’s Borremose bog sometime around 100BC.
Images on the Gundestrup cauldron offer clues to the significance of the bog bodies.