Customer Reviews

The Bog Man and the Archaeology of People

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This is a serious look at the Lindow man, a 2000-year old body that was pulled from the bottom of a bog. Scientists set upon him once found, to discover as much about him as they could, the process of which is the idea behind this book. The Lindow man is only one of the best preserved of about 700 such bodies, which the book covers as well in a general way. You get what they last ate, how they died, their taste in dress, their state of health, and some speculation on historical context that they came from. Unfortunately, as a whole the book is somewhat flat and slow, though the issues covered are extremely diverse. The writing is clear, at times almost philosophical, but a bit too technical for my taste.

Recommended. You can skim a lot of the details, which include the kind of scholarly comparisons that make many books by scientists for popular audiences a bore. But if you stick with it, the book is a competent window into a recondite science.