Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society
Prehistory Research Section & The Prehistoric Society
25th September 2021, 2 pm
Previously planned to take place at Leeds Museum, now to be delivered via Zoom. Contact info.prehist@yahs.org.uk for information on joining.
‘Bog Bodies: face-to-face with the past’
Talk by Dr Melanie Giles, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Manchester
Dr Melanie Giles encourages us to revisit the iconic phenomenon of bog bodies, through the story of Manchester Museum’s ‘bog head’ from Astley Moss, Worsley. By thinking differently about these landscapes, the many different kinds of artefacts also found in bogs, and the meaning of violence in later prehistoric and early Roman worlds. She will encourage us to tell more subtle stories around these discoveries, which addresses both their lives and deaths. She will end with some of the more creative ways in which museums have been responding to concerns about if and how we display human remains, encouraging us to see our archaeological work as a kind of ‘care’ for the ancient dead.