found to contain human myoglobin, a component of blood. Blood does not
normally enter the digestive tract, unless it is consumed orally. The conclusion
was plain–the person who had defecated did so after eating part of another
human being.
This finding has been challenged by those who doubt the science, or are
unwilling to accept that such practices took place among Native Americans.
One theory has suggested that the cannibals who killed the Anasazi were
originally from far to the south–perhaps a migrating group of people related
to the Aztecs of the Valley of Mexico, where bloody sacrifices and terrible
rites are known to have part of religion and government. However, more
evidence would be needed to finally identify the killers.^10
A particular category of prehistoric deaths in Northern Europe is that of the
bog bodies. Most of these date from the Iron Age, which began in Britain
around 700BC. Bog bodies have been found in Britain and Ireland, the
Netherlands, Denmark and Northern Germany, and they include men, women
and children. The common factor is that after death, rather than being buried
or cremated, the bodies were placed in marshes or bogs, where they have been
rediscovered by peat cutters.
Bogs are good places for the preservation of bodies. They are typically low
lying, watery areas of land which have a buildup of moss and other organic
material forming waterlogged acidic peat deposits. The acidic environment
halts the action of bacteria that would normally break down a body, and the
presence of tannins from the decaying mosses preserve skin as if it were
leather. As a result, bog bodies can seem remarkably modern when found, and
in the past, people have often thought they have unearthed modern corpses,
either murder victims or unlucky travellers who have strayed into the mire.
Hundreds of bodies have been discovered over the centuries, but only recently
has the science existed to allow them to be preserved and studied. One of the
earliest efforts to preserve a body came in 1950 when the remains of a man
were found at Tollund in Denmark; two years later another man’s remains
were found at Grauballe, not far from Tollund. This person had a deep cut
across his neck.
In 1984, a body was found at Lindow Moss near Manchester, after a foot
was spotted on the conveyor belt of a peatcutting machine. A little over two
thousand years old, it was the body of a man in his twenties, with good teeth
and carefully manicured nails. He had blood type O, the most common
modern English type. He was generally in good health apart from some mild
arthritis and a bad case of stomach parasites. Analysis revealed that he had
received several blows to the head, been hit so severely from behind that one
THE OLDEST CRIMES