Otherwise excellent overview of ancient Iron Age bog internments that however strays a bit as far as contextual conjecture is concerned. A bit too fanciful in what seems like padding at times. Nice illustrations and photographs, index and notes. Relies a tad too much on Roman Gallic histories as extrapolated to what are largely Germanic and Britannic bog sites. Still, what else is there to go on at present? Clearly states what is conjecture as opposed to fact anyway. ( )

Very well written and engaging argument, laying down all the possible interpretations of how and why iron-age people met violent ends in bogs. Fascinating and very thorough exploration of all the facets of what is know about these remains, without losing sight of the humanity of the subjects. ( )

Miranda Aldhouse-Green takes a look at the mystery of the bog bodies: how and where they were discovered; the world the bog people lived in; crime scene investigation of the bodies, how bog environments preserve bodies; whether the bog bodies were accident execution or murder victims; the ways they were killed; who might have done the deeds; and why this was done. The book is interesting and informative, with a great deal of research and many photographs. However, there is also a great deal of speculation, repetition and no definitive answers. ( )

I picked this book up on a whim at my local library, and soon discovered it was already on my to-read listing. Clearly, this was a fortuitous sighting.

This book was incredibly fascinating. Others have complained about the surfeit of speculation within it, and I will agree that there is a lot of speculation, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you pick it up as a relative newcomer to the Bog Body phenomenon, I feel this book has a lot to offer and a lot of fascinating insight into the not all that distant past. The photographs, at the very least, are worth quickly thumbing through the book to see. They're truly breathtaking.

Ultimately, I think my favorite part of the book was the utter respect with which the author treated the subject. At no point do the Bog Bodies become some freakish display, they are always human. It's important that we respect the past, and the bits of life that were managed to be reconstructed with startling things.

We may never know why the bodies were put into the bogs, why the ritual sacrifice (if it was such) occurred. But we can wonder, and we can do our best not to forget those we find, and what their last moments must have been like as they sunk beneath the surface, trapped forever somewhere between life and death. ( )

Natural bogs having preservative properties makes for some pretty fascinating and shocking modern-day discoveries while harvesting peat. Who are these ancient individuals, and why where they intentionally interred in a bog? The bog bodies herein are captivating and mysterious, and modern science allows researchers to perform impressive forensic feats toward discovering their histories. And, come on, who doesn't love bog bodies?

This book contains oodles of great information, excellent illustrations and color photos, and lots of compelling food for thought. Unfortunately, it also suffers from poor editing. Although each chapter was purportedly focused on a discrete topic, they were more or less indistinct from one another due to boundless repetition. The author also could not resist wandering frequently into the realm of conjecture which, to a reader accustomed to good scientific writing, was distracting and grating. Recommended for fans of history, archaeology and forensics, as long as you can look past misuses of "beg the question" without shuddering. ( )