Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination

Karin Sanders

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English

Chicago University Press
01 December 2009

History; Prehistoric archaeology; Cultural studies; Anthropology; Early man

Over the past few centuries, northern Europe’s bogs have yielded mummified men, women, and children who were deposited there as sacrifices in the early Iron Age and kept startlingly intact by the chemical properties of peat. In this remarkable account of their modern afterlives, Karin Sanders argues that the discovery of bog bodies began an extraordinary—and ongoing—cultural journey. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Sanders shows, these eerily preserved remains came alive in art and science as material metaphors for such concepts as trauma, nostalgia, and identity. Sigmund Freud, Joseph Beuys, Seamus Heaney, and other major figures have used them to reconsider fundamental philosophical, literary, aesthetic, and scientific concerns. Exploring this intellectual spectrum, Sanders contends that the power of bog bodies to provoke such a wide range of responses is rooted in their unique status as both archeological artifacts and human beings. They emerge as corporeal time capsules that transcend archaeology to challenge our assumptions about what we can know about the past. By restoring them to the roster of cultural phenomena that force us to confront our ethical and aesthetic boundaries, Bodies in the Bog excavates anew the question of what it means to be human.

By: Karin Sanders
Imprint: Chicago University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 24mm, Width: 16mm, Spine: 3mm
Weight: 624g
ISBN: 9780226734040
ISBN 10: 0226734048
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 01 December 2009
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Karin Sanders is professor of Scandinavian at the University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews for Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination

"""What a wonderful, wonderful book this is. I absolutely loved Bodies in the Bog and everything about it, from the thoughtful approach and beautiful writing to the well-contextualized discussions of bog bodies in psychology, poetry, art, museum display, and facial reconstruction. A truly interdisciplinary study clearly based on years of passionate research, it offers a rich and nuanced explanation of what makes these bodies so fascinating, appealing, and troubling."" - Stephanie Moser, University of Southampton"""