In October 2023, police in Northern Ireland uncovered a disturbing set of human remains in a bog just outside of Bellaghy. With patches of skin, fingernails, and even one organ still partially ...

When skeletal remains surfaced in Northern Ireland last year, the discovery was shaded with a discomforting question: Was this an archaeological site, or a crime scene?

Sphagnum moss is a key component of peat and gives northern Europe’s bogs their seemingly magical preservation properties. These northern wetlands are cold, low in oxygen, and very acidic.

“These ‘paper’ bog bodies are documented with varying degrees of detail and reliability.” Before the 19th century, bodies pulled out of bogs were often given a Christian reburial.

Uncannily well-preserved bodies from the ancient world occasionally surface Northern Europe's bogs. Stranger even than their remarkable preservation is the manner of their deaths.

In Northern Europe, bogs offer more sinister produce, from wads of ancient butter to leathery chunks of human bodies—which give archaeologists a view of life and death as it was centuries ago.

Bogs hold a key to climate solutions through carbon sequestration, but many have been drained In Illinois alone, more than 90 percent of wetlands have been lost.

An ancient body found in a Northern Ireland bog was likely decapitated and sacrificed, researchers said. Screengrab from Police Service of Northern Ireland's Youtube video More than a year ago ...

Bodies were buried in bogs across northern Europe for thousands of years. Archaeologists have undertaken the first comprehensive study of more than 1,000 bog bodies found across Ireland, Scotland ...

Other so-called "bog bodies" - the naturally preserved remains of long-deceased humans found in peat bogs - have been recovered and studied over the years, most commonly from Northern Europe.