I don’t know a lot about the subject, but from what I’ve heard in many cases there are indications that bog bodies were people of high social status. so not the kind of people who were likely to be assaulted by bandits, but the kind of people who might shoulder blame for societal issues. that’s (at least in part) where the assumption that they are ritual sacrifices rather than random murders comes from
The thing about bogs is that they’re a great place to put something you don’t want found. Like a body. Bogs are in a few places across northern Europe, and the vast majority of bog bodies are of people who died violently.
So it could be bodies of people killed by mob violence, like a thief that came to town. But also people robbed. The point is to get rid of a body and not have a reason to bury them like everyone else in town. Even if we entertain Occam’s razor a bit, ritual sacrifice that was similar across unconnected places vs. run of the mill human violence makes the sacrifice angle hard to accept as the singular answer for 1800 bodies.
If they were richer or more powerful, they’d definitely be more targeted. What they might or might not have had at the time that you’d expect today (or even in a later medieval setting) is protection. What’s the line between “the town set up a ritual designating the leader as responsible for failure” and “a bunch of people from downtown got upset and ganged up on the mayor and the landlord one night”?
If I was dirt poor, and going to rob and kill someone, I’d make it someone with something to steal.
It probably wasn’t difficult to find a female accomplice to get a well-to-do guy drunk in a tavern, lure him outside for a little slap & tickle, where her confederates can handle the rest.
I don’t know a lot about the subject, but from what I’ve heard in many cases there are indications that bog bodies were people of high social status. so not the kind of people who were likely to be assaulted by bandits, but the kind of people who might shoulder blame for societal issues. that’s (at least in part) where the assumption that they are ritual sacrifices rather than random murders comes from
The thing about bogs is that they’re a great place to put something you don’t want found. Like a body. Bogs are in a few places across northern Europe, and the vast majority of bog bodies are of people who died violently.
So it could be bodies of people killed by mob violence, like a thief that came to town. But also people robbed. The point is to get rid of a body and not have a reason to bury them like everyone else in town. Even if we entertain Occam’s razor a bit, ritual sacrifice that was similar across unconnected places vs. run of the mill human violence makes the sacrifice angle hard to accept as the singular answer for 1800 bodies.
If they were richer or more powerful, they’d definitely be more targeted. What they might or might not have had at the time that you’d expect today (or even in a later medieval setting) is protection. What’s the line between “the town set up a ritual designating the leader as responsible for failure” and “a bunch of people from downtown got upset and ganged up on the mayor and the landlord one night”?
Or even more simple, they were robbed by their bodyguards when out travelling, the body was dumped in the bog and the guards were never seen again.
A night out clubbing(Canadian) with the boyz.
If I was dirt poor, and going to rob and kill someone, I’d make it someone with something to steal.
It probably wasn’t difficult to find a female accomplice to get a well-to-do guy drunk in a tavern, lure him outside for a little slap & tickle, where her confederates can handle the rest.
They got Luigi’ed?
That and the ritual meal of blighted rye in their stomachs.
Really?
Ergot?
Ergot