Chemistry & Corpses: The Science of Bog Bodies

SciShow explains the chemistry, archaeology and history of bog bodies -- naturally mummified corpses (and other fun things!) that have been discovered in Europe's peat bogs.
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Sources:
archive.archaeology.org/1005/b...
archive.archaeology.org/1005/b...
www.wired.com/2009/08/bogosphere/
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bog/iron...
ngm.nationalgeographic.com/200...
www.bbc.com/news/science-envir...
www.livescience.com/38983-iris...
science.time.com/2013/07/28/th...
discovermagazine.com/1997/aug/...
www.tollundman.dk/
www.newscientist.com/article/m...

[@ram55555_]

I cant believe its still butter!

[@jaredwfrick]

Don't bog me down with details, just tell me if the tardigrades can survive there.

[@DalekDubs]

They can survive anywhere, so I'd assume so.

[@morgengabe1]

DalekDubs But the acidity of the environment may make things difficult.

[@InfiniteRhombus]

morgengabe1 they can survive in the vacuum of space, i think they'd be able to handle a bit of acidity

[@Discitus]

0:56 - Yay! Hank said "the Netherlands" instead of "Holland"! +1 internets to you, sir.

[@shibomi1]

oh, im getting flash backs to that bog scene in lord of the rings

[@chimkinNuggz]

I thought they were displaying a bog body at my local walmart today but it turned out it was the greeter lady just sleeping on the job

[@EnragedBarrothGaming]

I dare someone to eat the Iron-age butter!

[@Orsbore]

I dare someone to eat the Tollund Man.

[@EnragedBarrothGaming]

Orsbore Deal.

[@PMW3]

looking for peat...found Pete

[@thisisbecker]

A+ video. A great brief summary of about a month of my archeology class syllabus! I recently had the opportunity to go to the Archeological Museum in Dublin and see many of the preserved bodies. Such an amazing experience to look into the faces (or even stomachs) of these ancient bodies.

[@uomtnman]

Video idea: what's the chemistry behind the stability and natural preservation of honey? Would love to know! Thanks for great videos.

[@Waltham1892]

Preserved butter. Just in case you find preserved toast.

[@Robbythegod]

2:55 that's a Viking ship not a Celtic ship, but i forgive you. Not a history show after all.

[@ssppeellll]

Model comment poster: Makes an erudite correction without insulting anyone, then cuts the guilty party slack by keeping things in perspective.

[@Robbythegod]

Don't you love it when the internet is civilized.

[@jakkob5488]

Blasphemy! This man claims the Internet can function without its everlasting havoc! He shall be put upon trial by fire for devilry against the Great Spaghetti Monster! HAIL THE GREAT NOODLY LORD!!

[@mdjrobertson]

+Soulless Jack may you be touched by his noodly appendage.

[@sarahuang2661]

Thank you for captioning this episode. Really appreciate it :).

[@AlexandraRoedder]

Is it possible that the butter and lard were also sacrificed to the bog?

[@johnobrien5464]

My uncle once found the skul of a giant elk with antlers attached in a bog. Apparently the antler spann was about 7 feet.

[@OttawaOldFart]

I did a video on our bog here in Ottawa Canada. It is very rare at our latitude to have a bog and is studied by many of our universities, in fact there are labs analyzing the various gases that are emitted and other conditions that exist. I also included all all of the explanation stops along the way. It's a very interesting site as you literally walk on a boardwalk over the bog. Our bog is over 7000 years old and was created after the last ice age

[@katyspears58]

Could you do an episode on the stages of decomposition after death? Especially Rigor Mortis. I was reading about it and I didn't quite understand everything. Thanks for the awesome videos!

[@malignor9035]

Wouldn't it be ironic if the bog man were named Pete? Sorry to bog down your day with this bad humor. If it makes you feel better, your mummy loves you.

[@MegalomanicFuck]

It does make me feel butter!

[@MuzikBike]

Looks like I made a marsh of this pun.

[@ianalexander92]

...That's not ironic at all. Source: Wikipedia and various other dictionaries and encyclopedias. I chose to copy/paste this because I am very fuckin' lazy... and it's 1:41 in the morning here. *Irony:* _noun_ -The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect. "“Don't go overboard with the gratitude,” he rejoined with heavy irony" *synonyms:* _sarcasm, causticity, cynicism, mockery, satire, sardonicism_ "that note of irony in her voice" *antonyms:* _sincerity_ -A state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result. *plural noun:* _ironies_ "the irony is that I thought he could help me" *synonyms:* _paradox, incongruity, incongruousness_ "the irony of the situation" *antonyms:* _logic_ -A literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character. *noun:* _dramatic irony_

[@JoseOrtiz-yv8jz]

Holden Caulfield no one cares

[@ellenparker1831]

Bruh....

[@JavierKohen]

Mightily interesting SciShow episode on bogs, and what you can find in them. Or rather whom you may find.

[@Dr3Mc3Ninja]

Got a little over excited because I am from Ireland, and I went to Peatlands park and we got to go into the bogs and also saw some things they found in that bog, pretty sure there was a body too. I remembered about it being really acidic and so no bones really remained :3 I feel a lil'proud, as it was about 6 years ago when I went.

[@439801RS]

in elementary school i learned a simplified version of this and, as an 11-year old, i was fascinated. as example they used a in The Netherlands found bog body named the girl of Yde, that is proximately 2000 years old

[@strange2684]

Thanks for this! I had been wondering about bog bodies after reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

[@althyastar]

It's funny how someone buried all that butter there so it wouldn't go bad, and then never even bothered to go back and get it.

[@boechristensen1806]

Hey! That guy is in a museum in my home city! We always went to see him on school trips! Gotta love Tollundmanden! :D

[@BarrageHero]

Hank, can you do an episode on SHC (Spontaneous Human Combustion)? T'would be rad.

[@Descanlin]

Slapping an acronym or scientific-sounding name on something doesn't make it real~

[@atheistpariah]

Wasn't that a South Park episode? You know, not everything you seen in cartoons is real. :-P Otherwise, the coyote would defy the laws of gravity every time he fell off of a cliff while trying to catch that roadrunner.

[@YEHEY55]

atheistpariah are you a wizard??

[@BarrageHero]

Ralph Zimmermann Well, it'd be nice to see a video about the history of the phenomenon and why it even became a 'thing' in the first place. The only videos about it are the bullshit Discovery and History Channel ones that only present personal testimony and no facts!

[@seigeengine]

Hypothetical Axolotl Except I was under the impression it was real, just not spontaneous.

[@mrskristikat]

Great presentation. Thank you.

[@MarcosProjects]

Can you do an episode about the permafrost feedback loop and/or feedback loops in general please?

[@MarcosProjects]

*specifically climate change feedback loops

[@krackerkid5]

internal organs still intact? does that mean they can use the discovered bodies as organ donors? :P

[@SuperSonicBandAxa]

You want a 2000 year old kidney in you?.... I doubt it

[@krackerkid5]

if it works properly then sure, why not?

[@joanignasi91]

Well as Hank said the acidity of the environment would turn skin into leather so it would probably be as useful as having a wallet as a kidney.

[@SpaRool]

The organs may be intact, but all the cells are dead. Simple as that.

[@krackerkid5]

joanignasi91 that is true..... not to mention, the dead bodies probably don't have a donor card anyway

[@SilentCitadel]

If I didn't value my life quite so much I'd want to try some bog butter

[@MrEmeraldviking]

Bog lard isn't gruesome? What next? Bog oysters?@:

[@InfiniteRhombus]

its fine, you can try some yourself if you know the right persons, doesn't have much flavor, goes for thousands and thousands of pounds

[@chesseswar]

That first bog body looks really creepy: Tollund Man = Slenderman.

[@noopngamer]

In danish his name is gravballemanden

[@dale_ranchero3655]

Seen in person, can confirm: CREEPY.

[@funnyguy6197]

except it has a face

[@MrMynte]

Mathias glentvor No, there's multiple corpses that has been found in Denmark the Tollund Mand and Grauballemanden are two different corpses

[@noopngamer]

LOL history teacher is shit

[@grapplegamer]

Nice upload

[@TheHatterJack]

The Koelbjerg Woman (found in Syddanmark, Denmark in 1941) is considered to be the oldest bog body, although they only found her skull and a partial skeleton.

[@zenzylok]

There are many bogs throughout the universe all filled with some fascinating creatures.

[@katsmith2978]

My cats name is moss and she was like mama why is your attention taker saying my name ._.

[@herbertkeithmiller]

Mine's name is Khan so I'll watch Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan just to freak him out KKKKHHHAAANNNNN!!!!

[@ihave7sacks]

I can see it on the supermarket shelves already "Bog Butter" fresh and peaty

[@donnawood7263]

Herbert Miller - Your cat name is great. And watching Star Trek II is perfect. We have more of a Star Wars theme.....we have Darth Baiter,Chewbacca and Princess Leah. Now I HAVE to watch Star Wars just to see them wondering around to figure out whose calling them!!!

[@CanadaxIreland]

I saw the 4000 year old man in the national museum of history in Dublin, creepy but bloody fascinating

[@SlayerAnimations]

Thanks, I totally needed to know this.

[@willowriver4301]

the latest thing, Bog Butter! We'll make millions!!

[@AltairDhauglu]

When you made the celtic tribes reference, you showed a nordic drakar. Totally diferent cultures

[@gavinrolls1054]

Well both Germanic and Celtic tribes had the practice so yeah

[@apothecaryjames7968]

Very informative. 💕

[@DanielC01000100]

Woooo that's amazing!!

[@lilpwnige]

I got the opportunity to see Tollund Man in 2004 when him, along with several other specimens were on tour in Canada. The pictures don't really do them justice, they are far more impressive in person.

[@somefuckstolemynick]

Can you imagine the frustration hiking around in that bog not remembering where you put the damn butter?

[@seahawk124]

There were two bog bodies found about 20 miles from my home town in 1983 and 1984 (Lindow Woman and Lindow Man).

[@daphne5302]

as a big body, i’m happy to learn a little more about our culture and history

[@Meagan-Renee]

You added subtitles!!! Thank you!!!!! That rocks! :) :) :)

[@margaretguillory]

This was creepily cool.

[@JoelWatson-Exist-Dissolve]

How did humans learn to make bread?

[@stephenhorton]

You mention peat and don't mention whiskey? My favourite peated malt whiskey is The BenRaich 10 year peated single malt scotch Curiositas from Speyside. The best use of peat I've ever encountered!

[@reconsummate]

I think you can eat those preserved butters and cheeses, though I doubt it'll be tasty. I bet the environment imparts a flavor to it. Excavators have uncovered still sealed bottles containing alcohol from ancient shipwrecks. Pretty fascinating stuff.

[@simonfalkner1682]

A high pH only serves to denaturate (destroy) proteins and therefore also enzymes which would otherwise start breaking up the compounds of the dead corpses. In fact, animals would start to rot slightly even without bacteria or other things accelerating the process, as all cells have those enzymes to Break Down organic material.

[@masterangel9865]

Sci show needs a mascot :D

[@IceMetalPunk]

I thought it already did...or is the Hanklerfish not worthy? :(

[@stizan24]

I use peatmoss in my garden. My tomato plants can get 7 feet or more and yeald 10lb of ripe juicy tomatoes or more depending on the veriety I grow. Beans also do well. Cucumbers not so.much.

[@eugenio5774]

how about you make a video about the man of the Similaun? it's great!

[@tomkite1933]

Could you do an episode with some of the ideas of special relativity? I've heard that it's easier than general relativity and you can prove a lot with just pythagorean theorem

[@incorporealnuance]

Bogs are both terrifying and fascinating

[@sstkitm]

how long till power-saving bog fridges?

[@miserablerhurensohn]

Peat is also great in the production of Scotch whisky.

[@Aoderic]

So very true, I couldn't agree more.

[@miserablerhurensohn]

Aoderic Finally, another whisky drinker on this site. I love the peat monsters of Islay - Lagavulin / Ardbeg / Laphroaig / Caol Ila.

[@Murdocisgod83]

Oh, damn! Got all this butter... better throw it in the bog!

[@callunalepus7621]

Glad I'm not the only one to forget things in the fridge.

[@bprom7922]

I'd be interested in hearing more about telomeres and their relationship to the idea of immortality. Is there sufficient evidence to support targeted research?

[@swotsisters]

This whole episode I couldn't stop thinking of Puddleglum. - Sarah

[@thatcleverchick1182]

The map with blue land and orange oceans threw me off for a minute

[@Snipper08]

This is oddly timed, the "Tanks Smell of Bogs" preview trailer was recently released.

[@ThomasC3075]

Sci show, what good is a body to me when I have to get the turf home before the rain starts??? What about that Hank?!?

[@MrAwawe]

I saw tollund man at a museum. I though it was quite disrespectful though. If I was murdered I wouldn't want people paying to stare at my naked dead body 2000 years later.

[@QuikVidGuy]

Prehistoric? I mean I'm pretty sure history was being recorded more than 2200 years ago but I'm not a professional

[@milesbeler3974]

Yah, you're right about that. Prehistoric is a loose term, but I wouldn't say that Rome was a "prehistoric" society. I kindof use the term as

[@shacklock01]

QuikVidGuy Prehistory ends much earlier in places with writing. So for example, you could argue prehistory ends in the Middle-East with the advent of cuneiform around 3000BC but in Europe it continues up until the Roman conquest, or atleast till Greeks start writing about us. In Oceania for example prehistory holds until the european colonisation period despite Oceanic cultures having some of the longest and most unbroken oral histories, like the aboriginals who were pretty much telling the same stories and distilling the same culture for ten thousand years (really an example of colonial bias still prevailing in history and archeology :/ ) But yes as the other fella says its a very loose term amongst academics. (Plus theres some evidence i the danube of pre sumerian writing forms so we'll see what the future holds.)

[@TheConman656]

2200 years isn't, by any means, pre-historic.

[@MRawash]

I know, right? That's around the time Romans were getting ready to create an Empire. History was very much alive and recorded.

[@Defeshh]

A lot of people misunderstand the start of our era and the start of history. It's very infuriating for me.

[@JohnDoe-qx3zs]

Prehistoric is defined as before history was being written down as it happened *in that place / country * So a year can be prehistoric in one country and historic in another. 2200 before now is after Herodotus, but before Ansgar.

[@endakilgarriff8218]

Hehe that awesome moment when you live near the guy that found that barrel of bog butter... 😎👌😄

[@TGC40401]

Which is a better idea for ensuring "future life"; a bog-like lack of decomposition, or anti-freeze where your blood should be?

[@Crysal]

what a great episode to eat pizza to

[@monkeyneil578]

1000 year old butter. Sounds delicious!!! Give me some!

[@zopilote_4000]

the mountain goats have a song called tollund man thats about what they thought his last moments were like

[@glarthir3718]

Makes me think of the swamps in Lord of the Rings, where men, elves, and orcs are under the water and preserved.

[@SirAmicVarze]

As a Brit my understanding of the word "bog" is to refer to the toilet, so it was hilarious listening to Hank say it again and again.

[@lockedlockbox]

yaaaaaaaaaay, Netherlands!

[@The1Helleri]

Have any prehistoric animals been uncovered in these bogs?

[@benlibal1141]

Who wants to be some archaeologist has actually tried some of that butter on his toast?

[@hydzz09]

I literally just watched the BBC programme on the 4000 year old bog body! Creepy....

[@ivanclark2275]

Burying your food in a bog to prevent it spoiling is kind on ingenious, except for it would make it taste like a bog.

[@Drigger95]

The bodies may not have been tortured. Ancient Irish people were killed using a technique called 'threefold death'. Basically killing a person all at once in three ways.

[@apophisdk]

ben a cupple of years sence i saw him the last time :D he is in a museum in the citty near whare he was dug up.

[@apophisdk]

been a couple of years sence i saw him the last time :D he is in a museum in the city near where he was dug up.

[@qwertyTRiG]

There's a permanent exhibition of bog bodies at the National Museum of Ireland on Kildare Street in Dublin. I've been there a few times. It's all done very respectfully, with each body in a little alcove. The labels and information are outside, so you can read that first; then, when you go in, it's just you and the body, no distractions. Quiet and contemplative. Not really creepy, though I suppose it could be. Depends how you look at it. Seamus Heany referenced Tollund Man (and some imagery from the French Revolution, having the sacrificial victim riding a tumbrel), in a metaphor for senseless violence in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. TRiG.

[@JkCaron1]

Everytime you say Sci Show Dose, I think of spanish (dos), Sci Show 2, and I get confused about where Sci Show Uno is.

[@ThomasC3075]

Yay Ireland is of relevant

[@AaronFlattery]

IRELAND WOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[@ThomasC3075]

Hon the BOD now back to footing turf for me

[@SammyJ_Studios]

I don't care how well preserved that butter is. I wouldn't dare eat it.

[@crossgreyman6990]

Lol! The Tollund man looks like the scarecrow from the wizard of oz.

[@DeusViator]

Hank, vinegar cannot tan skin into leather so all it could possibly do is pickle the skin. To tan a hide you need to stabilise the collagen matrix with a tanning agent (veg oil or chrome) and without this it cannot be leather. Source: leather chemist and member of the British leather association.

[@aussiebaka4588]

Oh Hank, I could listen to you whisper sweet sphagnums in my ear all might long.

[@370TL]

That's crazy

[@ionz75]

You forgot to mention the most important use of peat: Scotch Whisky!

[@thenorup]

How is calcium ions making the bog acidic? Where does the hydrons come from?

[@leukocyteofdoom]

i'm _pretty sure_ the hydrogen comes from the polyuronic acid molecules that make up the moss. this hydrogen is then 'exchanged' for the Ca(2+), Mg(2+), K(1+), Na(1+), etc. cations in the water.

[@y.f.s4838]

I want that butter on my toast

[@A3roboy]

Pedantic correction: 2200 years ago was by no means pre-history.

[@Mrklol1]

Wating for science? Hank you are science.

[@yunthi]

how about an episode about gmo's seen a lot of "panic" about em, stores with meat labeled gmo free in large letters etc. is there an actual downside to genetic manipulation of crops? i mean it's not like we absorb any of the dna of a normal crop into our own dna or anything like that, why would the genetic code of a gmo crop be any different in that perspective?

[@finnmchenry207]

at 2:51 you said 'ancient Celtic tribes' and showed a viking ship. WHAT?

[@DarthLoompa]

Just being pedantic, but 2,200 years in not pre-historical. In fact, I learned all about it in history class...

[@asiansushininja]

I need to know about the butter...