Category: Factual & Arts TV
Date: 07.01.2006
Printable version
Following the gruesome discovery of two tortured men's torsos 18 months ago in County Offaly, central Ireland, an incredible bog bodies investigation was begun.
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91Èȱ¬ TWO's Timewatch: The Bog Bodies has had exclusive access to this investigation, conducted by the National Museum of Ireland.
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The bodies of 'Old Croghan Man' and 'Clonycavan Man' were miraculously preserved in a peat bog - nothing has been seen like this for decades.
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With only one bog body found in the last 50 years, human-remains experts had all but given up hope of finding any more. To find one would have been remarkable. To find two is astonishing and without precedent or parallel.
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Forensic evidence is found in every part of the bodies. The contents of their stomachs tell of their last meal; the chemicals in their hair enable an understanding of their diet; and their skeletons locate their age - a staggering 2,000+ years old.
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Clues to their social status come from the immaculately preserved fingerprints and nails, as well as Clonycavan Man's hairstyle.
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Producer John Hayes-Fisher says: "This is enormously significant in terms of European archaeology, as bog bodies are so terribly rare.
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"What was extraordinary, though, was looking into the face of someone living in the British Isles 300 years before the birth of Christ, and to see his eyes, his ears, his hair and even his teeth filled me with a sense of wonder.
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"What really shocked me while making the programme, though, was discovering the unnecessary violence with which some of these young men were killed. The Iron Age really was quite a brutal time."
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During Timewatch: The Bog Bodies, the head of Clonycavan Man is digitally 'inflated' and a model cast is created that allows viewers to see his face as it would have been moments before he died.
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Notes to Editors
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Timewatch: The Bog Bodies will be shown on 91Èȱ¬ TWO at 9.00pm on 20 January 2006.
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