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Lindow Moss peat workings in 2005
Wikimedia Commons

Lindow Woman and Lindow I are the names given to the partial remains of a female bog body
Human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog.
discovered in a peat bog at Lindow MossRaised peat bog in Cheshire, best known for the discovery of the preserved bog body of Lindow Man in 1984., near Wilmslow in Cheshire, England, on 13 May 1983 by commercial peat-cutters.[1] The remains were largely a skull fragment,[2] which was missing its jaw, but with soft tissue and hair attached. Radiocarbon dating eventually established that the remains dated back to the Roman occupation of Britain, 1700 years or so ago. They became known as Lindow I after the discovery of other human remains in the same bog, which were identified as Lindow Man or Lindow II in 1984, and Lindow III in 1987.[1]

The skull of Lindow Woman was initially assumed to belong to a local woman who had gone missing more than twenty years earlier, Malika de Fernandez. The police had long suspected her husband Peter Reyn-Bardt of her murder, but no body had been found.[3] Reyn-Bardt confessed to the crime as a result of the skull’s discovery and was convicted of his wife’s murder, despite attempting to withdraw his confession at his trial after the true age of the skull had been established.[1]

References



Bibliography


Aufderheide, Arthur C. The Scientific Study of Mummies. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
BBC. The Mystery of the Human Sacrifices Buried in Europe’s Bogs. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220907-the-mystery-of-the-human-sacrifices-buried-in-europes-bogs.
Sammut, Dave, and Chantalle Craig. “Bodies in the Bog: The Lindow Mysteries.” Distillations, July 2019, https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/bodies-in-the-bog-the-lindow-mysteries.