Windeby I

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Windeby I is the name given to the bog body found preserved in a peat bog in Northern Germany near Windeby in 1952. Until recently, the bog body Windeby I was also called Windeby Girl, because an archeologist believed it to be the body of a 14-year old girl due to the slim build of the body. Canadian anthropologist and pathologist Prof. Heather Gill-Robinson proved it to be a boy using DNA-samples from the body.

The boy was discovered by commercial peat cutters in 1952 and is now on display at The Landesmuseum at the Schloß Gottorf in Schleswig, Germany. Unfortunately, the peat cutting machinery had already severed one of his hands, a foot and a leg by the time it was stopped. Nevertheless, the body had been very well preserved by the peat and proved to be an important archaeological discovery. Shortly following it, a second, male body was found nearby and named Windeby II.

Today the body seems to have a half-shaven head and a woollen blindfold tied across the eyes. During new examinations scientists realised, that the hair on one side of the head was not shaved, it simply disintegrated on the side of the head, that was exposed to oxygen a little longer. The blindfold is in fact a woollen band in Sprang-technique used to tied the shoulder-length hair back - it slipped down onto the face after the boys death. The evidence suggests that the boy had been murdered, possibly as a sacrifice or a punishment. He was discovered underneath logs and branches, presumably to hold the body down.

[edit] External links

• The mysterious bog people

[edit] Sources

• Michael Gebühr: Moorleichen in Schleswig-Holstein. Verein zur Förderung des Archäologischen Landesmuseums e.V., Schleswig 2002, Wachholtz, Neumünster 2005. ISBN 3-529-01870-8
• Wijnand van der Sanden Mumien aus dem Moor - Die vor- und frühgeschichtlichen Moorleichen aus Nordwesteuropa. Drents Museum / Batavian Lion International. Amsterdam 1996. ISBN 9067074160