A multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental investigation of the findspot of an Iron Age bog body from Oldcroghan, Co. Offaly, Ireland

Abstract

In 2003, the remains of an Early Iron Age bog body, known as ‘Oldcroghan Man’, were recovered during the cutting of a drainage ditch in a bog in the Irish Midlands. Only some fingernails and a withe fragment remained undisturbed in situ in the drain face, providing the sole evidence for the original position of the body. A detailed reconstruction of the depositional context of the body has been undertaken through multi-proxy analyses of a peat monolith collected at the findspot. The palynological record shows that the surrounding area was the focus of intensive human activity during the Later Bronze Age, but was largely abandoned during the Bronze Age–Iron transition in the mid-first millennium BC. In the mid-4th century BC, a bog pool developed at the site, evidenced in the stratigraphic, plant macrofossil, testate amoebae and coleopteran records. Plant macrofossil and pollen analysis of peat samples associated with the fingernails suggests that the body was deposited in this pool most likely during the 3rd century BC. The absence of carrion beetle fauna points to complete submergence of the body within the pool. Deposition occurred shortly before or around the time that the surrounding area again became the focus of woodland clearance, as seen in the extended pollen record from the peat monolith. This period corresponds to the Early Iron Age in Ireland, during which renewed cultural connections with Britain and continental Europe can be seen in the archaeological record and widespread forest clearance is recorded in pollen records from across Ireland. The palaeoenvironmental results indicate, therefore, that the demise of Oldcroghan Man took place at a pivotal time of socio-economic and perhaps political change.

Introduction

In 2003, human remains, consisting of the upper torso and arms of an adult male, were discovered by an operative of Tipperary Peats Ltd in the bucket of a mechanical excavator during the recutting of a drainage ditch in the southern part of Clonearl Bog, in Oldcroghan townland, Co. Offaly, Ireland. Subsequent examination of the remains revealed that the individual, dubbed ‘Oldcroghan Man’, had been decapitated and severed at the mid-torso in antiquity, and ¹⁴C determinations on samples of internal tissue (OxA-14281, 2170 ± 30 BP; 361–115 cal BC) and an associated piece of withe (OxA-14280, 2189 ± 29 BP; 362–175 cal BC) returned dates firmly within the Irish Early Iron Age (Mulhall, in press, Mulhall and Briggs, 2007).

The body is one of two Early Iron Age bog bodies discovered recently in the Irish Midlands (Kelly, 2006), the second of which (‘Clonycavan Man’) also displayed evidence of physical mutilation. At least three other bog bodies of this age are known from Ireland (Brindley and Lanting, 1995), while in Britain and on continental Europe, the phenomenon is also well attested from this time (Brothwell, 1986, Glob, 1969, van der Sanden, 1995, van der Sanden, 1996). With rare exceptions (e.g. Bermingham and Delaney, 2006, Branch and Scaife, 1995, Stead et al., 1986), however, reconstructions of the contexts in which bog bodies were deposited have been few, limiting the understanding of the wider circumstances of the burials. Discrepancies between dates from Lindow II and III bog bodies from Cheshire, England, and their surrounding deposits have raised interesting debates about the burial methods employed and the taphonomic processes affecting the bodies in the bog (Barber, 1995, Buckland, 1995).

This paper describes the results of a multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental study conducted on a peat monolith collected from a section adjacent to the findspot of Oldcroghan Man. Using pollen, plant macrofossil, testate amoebae and coleopteran analyses, we reconstruct the landscape history of the surrounding area in the centuries bracketing the burial, as well as detailed local environmental conditions at the time the body was deposited in the bog.