Friday, January 20, 2006

Photo in the News: Iron Age "Bog Man" Used Imported Hair Gel

Fancy imported hair gel is, unfortunately, no guard against a good solid axe blow to the skull.

This sad fact is illuminated by Clonycavan man (pictured above) who suffered three blows from an axe to his head, one to his chest, and was also disemboweled before being mummified in an Irish peat bog.

Experts studying the remains of the murder victim say he likely lived between 392 B.C. and 201 B.C. The man's hair contains a substance made from vegetable oil mixed with resin from pine trees found in Spain and southwest France. The man might have used the product, researchers say, to make himself appear taller.


More detailed story linked here.

Pretty grisly stuff in the latter one. Of course, we don't know in what order the particular wounds were inflicted, so it may be that it wasn't 'torture' per se but perhaps ritual defilement. After all, one good axe blow to the head would probably wipe you out right off the bat, so anything after that would be sorta moot.