Denmark
| Name | Other names | Location | Age (Carbon-14 Dating) | Gender | Year discovered | Image | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arden Woman | Bredmose Woman | Himmerland | -1400 !1400 BCE | Female | 1942 | The Arden Woman was found in the Bredmose bog in the Parish of Stoarden, Hindstead, Denmark. Police said the corpse was found in a 'question mark' shape. After the remains were completely unearthed they were moved into a nearby barn. Her hair was dark blond and was drawn into two pigtails and coiled around the top of her head. Over the hair was a bonnet, which was made using a sprang technique. Unlike some bog bodies, she was found with other garments. She was around the age of 20–25 years old. No signs of violence were found on her body. The body remains at the National Museum of Copenhagen. | |
| Auning Woman | Midtjylland | -0000 !0 CE | Female | 1886 | She was found with several wool and skin garments. Because she was found with several sticks on top of the body, it may have been possible that she had been pinned down in the bog to keep her remains from surfacing.
Forensic facial reconstruction was done on this bog body. |
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| Borremose Man | Borre Fen Man | Himmerland | -0700 !700 BCE | Male | 1946 | The man was violently killed by having his skull crushed and his leg broken. A rope was also found around his neck, indicating death by hanging or strangulation. The body is in storage at the National Museum of Copenhagen. | |
| Borremose II | Himmerland | -0400 !400 BCE | Presumed Female | 1947 | The bog body was lying face down in two feet deep on a base of birch bark. In the immediate vicinity were birch branches, directly on the body of three approximately 10 centimeters long birch poles of the same thickness. The skull was fractured and the brain was visible. The right leg was 10 inches below the knee broken, which was because of the weight of peat on the body. The body was naked, but the lower body and legs were covered with a cloak made of a four layered twill fabric and a fringed shawl. These two articles of clothing are now on display at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. It is uncertain if the body had been clothed at the time it had been deposited, because the clothing from plant materials such as flax fibers can be passed in the acidic peat. In addition, there were other objects found with her: half a clay pot on the knees of the corpse, and half a humerus and a half radius of a human infant beside her. Around the neck of the bog body was a leather belt with an amber bead and a brass disk 22-23 millimeters in diameter. | ||
| Borremose III | Borremose Woman | Himmerland | -0750 !750 BCE | Female | 1948 | The Borremose Woman was discovered lying face down with the scalp separated from the body. The woman was described to be obese, and was wrapped in a woolen cloak. Borremose Woman is not currently on display, but is stored at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. The age of the woman at the time of her death was approximately 20–35 years old. Like the other Borremose discoveries, the woman appeared to have violent injuries. She was previously thought to have been scalped as well as having her skull crushed as the cause of death, but studies show these happened after death due to movement of the peat in the bog. Studies of the woman's face and neck showed no signs of bleeding, meaning that the injuries to the face had occurred after death. | |
| Elling Woman | Silkeborg | -0280 !280 BCE | Female | 1938 | The body was wrapped in a sheepskin cape with a leather cloak tied around the woman's legs. The face of the woman was poorly preserved as well as no traces of organs inside of the body. The woman was hanged like the Tollund Man, who was found in the same bog twelve years later. This body is often recognized by its 90 centimeter braid, which was tied into an elaborate knot. Elling Woman is believed to have been a human sacrifice. | ||
| Frær Mose Woman | Frærmose Woman | Denmark | – | Female | 1842 | The woman's foot was unearthed four feet under the surface of the bog. A well preserved wool garment and a shoe were found with the human remains. | |
| Gadevang Man | Zealand | -0480 !480–60 BCE | Male | 1940 | This bog body was completely skeletonized when he was unearthed from the peat. Examination revealed that he was approximately 35–50 years of age at the time of his death. A hole in his skull shows evidence of primitive surgery. | ||
| Grauballe Man | Jutland | -0290 !290 BCE | Male | 1952 | Studies show Grauballe Man was most likely a ritual sacrifice victim. His fingers had been so perfectly preserved in the bog, that his finger prints had been taken, the same with Old Croghan Man. The man's face had been reconstructed to show what he had looked like when he was alive. | ||
| Haraldskær Woman | Haraldskjaer Woman | Jutland | -0500 !500–401 BCE | Female | 1835 | For some time, The Haraldskær Woman was thought to have been the Norwegian Queen Gunnhild, until carbon-14 dating proved she was much older. Studies show she was around 50 years old and in good health when she died. Her clothing were placed on top of her naked body. | |
| Huldremose Woman | Huldre Fen Woman, Huldre Woman | Ramten, Midtjylland | -0160 !160 BCE-340 CE | Female | 1879 | Huldremose Woman is the name of the bog body of an elderly Iron Age woman discovered in 1879 near Ramten, Jutland, Denmark. The body, found clothed in a wool skirt and two skin capes, dated between 160 BCE and 340 CE. At the time of death, the woman was more than 40 years old—considered elderly for people of that time period. Her right arm was severed, but the injury probably occurred by shovels during the unearthing of the body. A wool cord tied her hair and enveloped her neck, but forensic analysis found no indication of death by strangulation.
According to recent isotope analysis, parts of her clothing's wool had been imported from northern Norway or Sweden. |
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| Nederfrederiksmose body | Kraglund Man, Frederiksdal Man | Nordjylland | – | Presumed male | 1898 | The first bog body to be photographed before being moved from where it was discovered. | |
| Koelbjerg Woman | Syddanmark | -8000 !8000 BCE | Female | 1941 | Thought to be the oldest bog body to date, she was around 25 years of age when she died. There were no traces of violence found on her skeletal remains. | ||
| Porsmose Man | Zealand | -2600 !2600 BCE | Male | 1946 | This skeletonized bog body was that of a 35–40 year old man that was found in 1946. The skeleton is most famous for the arrow head which pierced the man's nose, but he was not killed by this wound; but rather by an arrow that pierced his aorta. The arrows are presumed to have been fired from a close distance and from above. | ||
| Roum head | Roum Woman | Himmerland | Iron Age | Male | 1942 | Only the decapitated head of the body was found. The young man was around 20 years old at the time he died. The find was originally titled as "Roum Woman" until traces of beard stubble were found on the face. The sheepskin that the head was wrapped in dates to the early Iron Age. | |
| Sigersdal Skeletons | Zealand | -3650 !3650–3140 BCE | Presumed male | 1949 | These two people were around 16 and 19 when they died. One skull had a very large trauma wound on its left side. | ||
| Søgårds Man | Jutland | -0360 !360 BCE – 240 CE | Male | 1944 | Only the feet and legs were preserved. | ||
| Sorø Skeletons | Lolland | -3500 !3500 BCE | Male | 1942 | The collective name for two skeletons with deformities and evidence of surgery. | ||
| Stidsholt Woman | Stidsholtmose Woman | Jutland | – | Female | 1859 | The Stidsholt Woman is the severed head of a woman discovered in 1859. She was decapitated by a blow to the third and fourth vertebrae. Her hair is a dark red, which comes from the chemicals in peat bogs. Her hair had been tied into a knot, and fastened with a woven band, which was destroyed. Her head was never scientifically dated, and the rest of her body was never found. Her hair was 20 inches long. She is also known as the Stidsholt Fen Woman and the Stidsholtmose Woman. Her head is on display in the Copenhagen Museum in Denmark. | |
| Tollund Man | Silkeborg | -0400 !400 BCE | Male | 1950 | The Tollund Man has been noted for the excellent preservation of his facial features. The corpse was found in early May 1950 when a family had been harvesting peat from a bog, near the town of Silkeborg. With the body, a sheepskin cap and a belt were found, although no additional article of clothing was preserved, probably because they had decomposed. He also had a noose around his neck, indicating that he was hanged. Only his head remains original in his museum display due to lack of preservation knowledge at the time of discovery. It is believed that the Tollund Man was a ritual sacrifice victim.
The Elling Woman had been discovered twelve years earlier, hanged as well, 80 meters from his discovery site. |
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| Valmose bodies | Jutland | 380 !380 BCE and 225 !225-230 BCE | Female | Unknown | Two adult skeletons of women were found with fragments of pottery and two other incomplete human skeletons of undetermined genders. A vast amount of animal remains were also found, including horses and oxen. | ||
| Vester Thorsted Man | Vejle | -145 !145 - 95 BCE | Male | 1913 | The man's body was discovered wearing a leather cloak, two feet below the surface of the bog. |