What was the point of bog bodies?

They are generally found pushed down under wicker mesh or having suffered a violent death just before being thrown into the bog.

Tacitus notes the presence of this behavior amongst Germanic tribes and it has been found among groups of people we would broadly group as "Celtic."

Interestingly Tacitus notes that those who were subjected to the practice were the:

> ignavos (lazy) et imbelles (coward, literally unwarlike) et corpore infames

The last one is variously translated as "those who have defiled themselves" or "sexual perverts." I'd assume that homosexuality wasn't really a concept or identity back then and they weren't as obsessed as we are today with sexual classifications etc. Recent scholarship has also found evidence among bog bodies for deformities and physical disabilities.

What do you folks think the purpose of the whole bog drowning ritual was? Religious recycling bin for fags and cripples? Or sacrificial slaughter ground for captured enemies as some say?

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threefold_death
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Also post moar bog bodies.

Getting rid of useless people

Did Nazi literature ever make reference to these bog bodies? It seems as though they would suit the Nazi narrative about ancient Germanics quite well.

>The last one is variously translated as "those who have defiled themselves" or "sexual perverts."

Why? 'infames' literally means 'infamous'. A connection to sexuality is entirely made up.

That's the impression I get from Tacitus based on how community and strength orientated he portrays the Germanic tribes. Problem is though he was using his work to criticize what he considered to be the problems and weaknesses developing in Roman high society.

Any other examples of societies who culled the 'useless?'(Beyond Spartans leaving weak babies on the mountain)

Everyone

>Japan
>China
>Pagan Europe
>Native Americans
>Polynesians
>Africa

Hindus were always pretty tolerant of the disabled or deformed. And a few African tribes were too.

>> ignavos (lazy) et imbelles (coward, literally unwarlike) et corpore infames

Literally all of Veeky Forums would have been thrown into bogs.

Shameless bump. Here be two people they thought were a m/f couple but upon further investigation turned out to be a couple dudes.

>'(Beyond Spartans leaving weak babies on the mountain)

All Greeks (and Romans) did this.

The special thing about Sparta was that the decision was taken by the council of elders and not the father.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threefold_death

Proto jews, They were annoying.

Wew this thread pops up as soon as I'm writing a paper on this.
The bog bodies were people who received the death penalty, obviously. They were hung or had their throats cut or just knocked out and pushed in.

When sacrifices were done it is generally known that some part of the sacrifice was hung up on a tree or pole. This was so other people knew this man sacrificed to the gods and so that the gods could see his sacrifice.

The bog bodies are hidden however. Not to be seen by the gods. The bog bodies also couldn't receive the proper funeral of a burning on a pyre. So the things that these men/women did to be punished with being pushed in the bog shows that they were criminals not deserving of proper burial and should be hidden away so the gods couldn't see the disgraceful men.

How do you explain so many high status weapons and trinkets, assumed to be offerings found in bogs

Thanks for the quick rundown

I haven't seen anything on that. Mind linking a few articles so I can read up on it

water blocks the spirit

Not the guy who initially asked but caches of broken weapons and other fine ornamental metal items which were also broken are commonly found in bogs in Britain. Pic related is one such find in the national museum of Scotland.

Same collection.

My guess in terms of the hoardes found would be the Celtic belief that the deeps and hollows of nature was where the land of the living and the land of the dead were closest. If you wanted to give something to the gods it would makes sense to throw it in the "bottomless pit." Celtic is a very broad term and British Celtic traditions may well have varied from the Germanic/Scandinavian ideas of hanging things in trees.

>The bog bodies are hidden however. Not to be seen by the gods.

What if these are Earth gods though?

Not him but I think these were an enemy's weapons collected by the victors and broken and thrown in. I think I read that in Empires and Barbarians by Peter Heather.