Book Description
for Bodies from the Bog by James M. Deem
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
The nature of most peat bogs causes them to be a perfect preservative for bodies that were buried thousands of years earlier. Occasionally in recent times across Europe, such bodies have been found in peat bogs. Archeologists call this type of mummy a bog body." One such bog body discovered in 1952 near Grauballe, Denmark, is known as the Grauballe Man. Experts surmise that he died about 55 BCE, no doubt as a human sacrifice of Iron Age people. Deems discusses the methods utilized by scientists to reconstruct when and how each individual might have lived and died. The book contains archival photographs of skulls and mummified bodies that will fascinate young readers, but Deems does not disrespectfully sensationalize an admittedly quite sensational subject. (Ages 9-14)
CCBC Choices 1998. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 1998. Used with permission.