Amcotts Moor Woman

Amcotts Moor Woman is the name given to bog body discovered in 1747 in a bog near Amcotts, Lincolnshire, England. Because little was known about preservation at the time, as well as over-sampling, only her left shoe has survived.^[1]

Discovery

The surviving shoe of the woman

In the summer of 1747, a peat digger unearthed the body of a woman through roughly six feet of peat moss. The man quickly fled after his shovel struck a shoe with partial remains of a human foot still inside. The following October, Dr. George Stovin, after hearing of the discovery set out with his team to finish the excavation. Dr. Stovin concluded that the woman's body was bent so her head and feet were close to touching. Stovin described the skin of corpse to be strong. With the body, a pair of shoes were found, one of which was damaged by the shovel of its discoverer. The sandals were said to have tawny color and to be pliable. The bones of the woman's foot were found inside of the sandals, as the bones of the arms and thighs were found inside of the skin. The hand and fingernails were described to have been well preserved, however, they had been lost when they were sent for study.^[2]

References