An Investigation into Topographic Distribution Patterns Associated with Wetlands Surrounding Bog Body Burial Sites

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

History is imprinted in our landscapes, and the creation of bog deathscapes indicates the agency of wetland environments to the mortuary customs of European Iron Age and North American Archaic Age communities. The functionality and ideological value of bog landscapes vary spatially and temporally, yet there is a unilateral use of bogs as unique burial grounds between diversely located cultures. This presentation examines why there are significant resemblances in bog body burial customs, despite the extensive spatial and cultural separation, and how topography influenced five bog body burial sites: four Northwestern European wetlands sites and a singular mass Archaic American burial. Previous scholarship focused on the osteological and cultural aspects of bog bodies and their violent deaths, along with the ecology of peat wetlands. However, few sources use geospatial analysis to assess geographic aspects which influenced the similarities of distinctive bog body burials. To understand the agency of the distribution of topographic patterns that guided these burial choices, this research examines the functionality and ideological value of bog landscapes and what trends are visible in each terrain to determine the reasoning for such remarkable similarities in the overall treatment and placement of the dead across time and space.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37470.0