Abstract

Although various reports place the number of preserved bodies, or body parts, from the peat bogs of northwestern Europe at anything up to 1500, less than 50 bog bodies still exist. Most of the known bodies are either on display in museums or hidden in museum storeroom. The majority of the research on these bodies was conducted in the interval between discovery and conservation or display and little new research has been undertaken with these bodies in recent decades.This paper discusses the methods used in a current project to re-examine five Iron Age human mummies and one skull from the peat of northern Germany and will discuss the issues associated with invasive and non-invasive studies of mummified human remains.