Windeby I

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (April 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 2,263 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Moorleiche von Windeby I]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Moorleiche von Windeby I}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Windeby I is the name given to the bog body found preserved in a peat bog near Windeby, Northern Germany, in 1952. Until recently^[when?], the body was also called the Windeby Girl, since an archaeologist believed it to be the body of a 14-year-old girl, because of its slight build. Professor Heather Gill-Robinson, a Canadian anthropologist and pathologist, used DNA testing to show the body was actually that of a sixteen-year-old boy.^[1] The body has been radiocarbon-dated to between 41 BC and 118 AD.^[2]

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Windeby I" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The body was discovered by commercial peat cutters in 1952, and is now^[when?] on display at the Landesmuseum at the Schloß Gottorf in Schleswig, Germany. By the time the body was noticed by the peat cutters, and before the peat-cutting machinery could be shut down, a hand, a foot, and a leg had been severed from the body. The body had been very well preserved by the peat, and despite the damage, it is still an important archaeological discovery. Shortly after the discovery of Windeby I, another bog body (an adult male) was found nearby and dubbed Windeby II.

The body appears to have a half-shaven head and a woollen blindfold tied across the eyes. Recent^[when?] examinations^{[by whom?]} have however established that the hair over the half of the scalp was not shaven, but had rather decomposed due to being exposed to oxygen a little longer than the rest of the body.^{[citation needed]} The "blindfold" is in fact a woollen band, made using the sprang technique, that was probably used to tie back the boy's shoulder-length hair and which had slipped down over his face after death.

It was thought by Peter Glob that the body had met with a violent death,^[3] but research by Heather Gill-Robinson has led to this theory being disputed.^[4] Jarrett A. Lobell and Samir S. Patel wrote that the body 'shows no signs of trauma, and evidence from the skeleton suggests [she] may have died from repeated bouts of illness or malnutrition.'^[5]

• List of bog bodies

(BCE/CE dates given are radiocarbon dates.)

• Bocksten Man, a modern body from 1290 to 1430 CE, found 1936 in Varberg Municipality, Sweden.
• Borremose Bodies, from 400 to 700 BCE, found 1940s in Himmerland, Denmark.
• Cladh Hallan mummies, from 1600 to 1300 BCE, found on the island of South Uist, Scotland.
• Clonycavan Man, from 392 to 201 BCE, found 2003 in County Meath, Ireland
• Girl of the Uchter Moor, found in 2000 in Uchte, Germany.
• Grauballe Man, from 290 BCE, found 1952 in Jutland, Denmark.
• Haraldskær Woman, from 490 BCE, found 1835 in Jutland, Denmark.
• Lindow Man, from 20 to 90 CE, found 1984 in Cheshire, England.
• Old Croghan Man, from 362 to 175 BCE, found in County Offaly, Ireland.
• Yde Girl, from 54 BCE to 128 CE, found 1897 near the village of Yde, Netherlands.

• National Geographic September 2007: "Tales From the Bog"

• Gebühr, Michael (2002). Verein zur Förderung des Archäologischen Landesmuseums e.V. (ed.). Moorleichen in Schleswig-Holstein (in German). Neumünster: Wachholtz. ISBN 978-3-529-01870-1.
• van der Sanden, Wijnand (1996). Through Nature to Eternity - The Bog Bodies of Northwest Europe. Amsterdam: Batavian Lion International. ISBN 978-90-6707-418-6.

54°27′05″N 9°49′33″E / 54.45139°N 9.82583°E / 54.45139; 9.82583^[6]