Yde Girl

Coordinates: 53°05′49″N 6°35′06″E / 53.09694°N 6.58500°E / 53.09694; 6.58500^[1]

Location where the Yde Girl was found

Yde Girl  ⁽ⁱ⁾  [ ɪdə ] is a bog body found in the Stijfveen peat bog near the village of Yde, Netherlands. She was found on 12 May 1897 and was reputedly uncannily well-preserved when discovered (especially her hair), but by the time the body was turned over to the authorities a fortnight later it had been severely damaged and deteriorated.^[2] Most of her teeth had been pulled from the skull by villagers as well as a large amount of hair.^[3] The peat cutting tools had also been reported to have severely damaged the body.^[2]

Examination

The Yde Girl's body

Carbon-14 tests have indicated that Yde Girl died between 54 BCE and 128 CE at an approximate age of 16 years.^[2] She had long reddish blond hair, but one side of her head was initially thought to have been shaved before she died. Recent studies of Windeby I, however, have suggested that the shaved hair phenomenon in some bog bodies may simply attest to one side of the head being exposed to oxygen slightly longer than the other. Scans have shown that she suffered from a spine condition known as scoliosis. She stood at 137cm (four-feet-six-inches), which is comparatively small for a sixteen-year-old.^[2]

The body was found clad in a woolen cape and with a woolen band, made in a braiding technique known as sprang, wrapped around the neck, suggesting she was executed or sacrificed.^[4][5] There was also a stab wound in the area of her collarbone, but that was not determined as the cause of death. It is thought that she may have died while unconscious, as defensive wounds were absent on the hand that was recovered from the body, unlike a similar case in Germany, the Kayhausen Boy, who had a cut on his left hand from an apparent defense attempt.^[2] As with most bog bodies, the skin and features are still preserved because of the tannic acid in the marsh water. When Yde Girl was excavated, the diggers accidentally caused a wound to the skull. Only the torso of the girl, the head, the right hand and the feet remain intact today. The rest of her body was not preserved or had been damaged by peat cutting tools.

Exhibit

1992 facial reconstruction by artist Richard Neave

The Yde Girl was put on display and further study was not carried out on the remains until 1992. Richard Neave, of University of Manchester, took a CT scan of the skull of Yde Girl and determined her age, both anatomically and historically.^[3][4][6] The Yde Girl became internationally known when Neave made a reconstruction of her head, using techniques from plastic surgery and criminal pathology.^[7] Due to the state of the body, the work on the reconstruction included some guesswork, for example, the nose.^[2] Yde Girl and her modern reconstruction are displayed at the Drents Museum in Assen.

Yde Girl, along with Roter Franz and the Weerdinge Men, were transported across the world for a museum tour in the both the early and mid 2000s. ^[4][5][3] Due to the intensity of the girl's death, protests in Canada prevented the tour from traveling through several locations in the country.^[8]

See also

• Bog body
• Kayhausen Boy, found in 1922, believed to have been sacrificed for physical deformities.
• Clonycavan Man, found in 2003 three months before Old Croghan Man, dating to the first centuries BCE.
• Grauballe Man, found 1952 in Nebelgård Mose, a bog in Jutland, Denmark.
• Haraldskær Woman, 5th century BCE, found 1835 in a peat bog in Jutland, Denmark.
• Lindow Man, found 1984, also reconstructed by Richard Neave.
• Tollund Man, 3rd - 2nd century BCE.
• Bocksten Man, found 1936, Sweden.
• Weerdinge Men, from 160-220 BCE, were two naked bog bodies found in Drenthe, Netherlands in 1904.

References

External links

• Yde Girl - as discovered and facial reconstruction at James M. Deem's Mummy Tombs site.
• National Geographic September 2007: "Tales From the Bog"