Windeby I

Upper body of Windeby I

show This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (April 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 6,533 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Moorleiche von Windeby I]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|de|Moorleiche von Windeby I}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Windeby I is the name given to the bog body found preserved in a peat bog near Windeby, Northern Germany, in 1952. Until recently, the body was also called the Windeby Girl, since an archeologist believed it to be the body of a 14-year-old girl, because of its slight build. Prof. Heather Gill-Robinson, a Canadian anthropologist and pathologist, used DNA testing to show the body was actually that of a sixteen-year-old boy.^[1] The body has been radiocarbon-dated to between 41 BCE and 118 CE.^[2]

History[]

The body was discovered by commercial peat cutters in 1952, and is now on display at The Landesmuseum at the Schloß Gottorf in Schleswig, Germany. Unfortunately, by the time the body was noticed by the pennywise, and before the peat-cutting machinery could be shut down, a hand, a foot, and a leg had been severed from the body. The body had been very well preserved by the peat, and despite this damage it is still an important archaeological discovery. Shortly after the discovery of Windeby I, another bog body (an adult male) was found nearby and dubbed Windeby II.

Description[]

The body appears to have a half-shaven head and a woollen blindfold tied across the eyes. Recent examinations have however established that the hair over the half of the scalp was not shaven, but had rather decomposed due to being exposed to oxygen a little longer than the rest of the body. The "blindfold" is in fact a woollen band, made using the sprang technique, that was probably used to tie back the boy’s shoulder-length hair and which had slipped down over his face after death.

Cause of Death[]

It was thought^{[by whom?]} the body had met with a violent death, but research by Dr. Heather Gill-Robinson has led to this theory being disputed.^[3] Jarrett A. Lobell and Samir S. Patel wrote that the body 'shows no signs of trauma, and evidence from the skeleton suggests [he] may have died from repeated bouts of illness or malnutrition.'^[4]

Bones of Windeby I temporarily on display at Archäologisches Landesmuseum

Reconstruction process of the face, by Richard Helmer.

See also[]

• List of bog bodies

Some notable bog bodies[]

(BCE/CE dates given are radiocarbon dates.)

• Bocksten Man, a modern body from 1290–1430 CE, found 1936 in Varberg Municipality, Sweden.
• Borremose Bodies, from 400–700 BCE, found 1940s in Himmerland, Denmark.
• Cladh Hallan mummies, from 1600–1300 BCE, found on the island of South Uist, Scotland.
• Clonycavan Man, from 392–201 BCE, found 2003 in County Meath, Ireland
• Girl of the Uchter Moor, found in 2000 in Uchte, Germany.
• Grauballe Man, from 290 BCE, found 1952 in Jutland, Denmark.
• Haraldskær Woman, from 490 BCE, found 1835 in Jutland, Denmark.
• Lindow Man, from 20–90 CE, found 1984 in Cheshire, England.
• Old Croghan Man, from 362–175 BCE, found in County Offaly, Ireland.

External links[]

• National Geographic September 2007: "Tales From the Bog"

Sources[]

• Gebühr, Michael (2002). Verein zur Förderung des Archäologischen Landesmuseums e.V. (ed.). Moorleichen in Schleswig-Holstein (in German). Neumünster: Wachholtz. ISBN 978-3-529-01870-1.
• van der Sanden, Wijnand (1996). Through Nature to Eternity - The Bog Bodies of Northwest Europe. Amsterdam: Batavian Lion International. ISBN 978-90-6707-418-6.

References[]

Coordinates: 54°27′05″N 9°49′33″E / 54.45139°N 9.82583°E / 54.45139; 9.82583^[5]