On May 19, 1952, peat workers came across human bones near Eckernförde. The wrong gender determination of the mummy leads to wild theses about her past. This is another reason why the Windeby bog body is one of the best-known in Germany.
by Jochen Lambernd
The week had just begun on Monday, May 19, 1952, when peat cutters made an extraordinary discovery in a cool twelve degrees. During their work, they found human bones in Domslandmoor, which was then part of Windeby (Rendsburg-Eckernförde district). You realize that these are thigh bones. They immediately stopped their peat work and alerted the police. The archaeologists at Schloss Gottorf in Schleswig were informed because the first assessment was that the bones could be very old. Specialists then recover the corpse as a whole and document it. The find will be uncovered and examined in detail in the Archaeological State Museum.
Mummy from the Iron Age is largely well preserved
The bog preserved the dead person. The well-preserved corpse lies on its back, its head turned to the right. A ribbon is wrapped around him, covering his eyes. The left hand rests on the pelvis, the right on the chest. A broken wooden stick lies on the body. Skin, hair and bones are clearly visible and in good condition for research purposes. A pollen analysis reveals that the person must have died during the Iron Age, around the time of Christ's birth. A later radiocarbon analysis shows that the time of death was between 41 BC and 118 AD.
The "Windeby girl" - an adulteress?
Some evidence - such as the very delicate bones of the mummy - suggest that the corpse could have been a young woman. This statement is not really certain at the time. Nevertheless, the mummy gets the name "Girl from Windeby". Finally, there are other clues, such as the unusual hairstyle:the left half of the head is shaved bald, leading archaeologists to believe that this could have been the result of punishment. The right hand stretches up tensely, the thumb is pushed between the index and middle fingers. According to the experts, this gesture in turn symbolizes the so-called fig - a gesture with sexual significance. She could stand for unchastity. In combination with the covered eyes, researchers therefore see the corpse as a convicted adulteress from Germanic times. The young wife could have been unfaithful to her husband and driven to the moor as punishment. This version has long been considered the probable story of the Windeby bog body.
The "Man from Windeby" supports early love thesis
The hazel rod found in the mortal remains of the "Man from Windeby" was "modernly supplemented".This view is substantiated a short time later by the discovery of another - male - bog body on June 9, 1952, only a few meters away from the first place where it was found. The 'Man from Windeby' has intact skin and hair on his head, but these have been flattened by the layer of peat overlying him. Not much can be seen of the bones. The moor has not preserved this dead man so well. Except for a few pieces, the bones were dissolved by bog acids. The reconstruction shows that the forearms were crossed over the chest and the legs were slightly bent at the knees. Clothes are not discovered. At the site, the corpse was covered like a tent with wooden poles as thick as an arm. A hazel rod was twisted around her neck. This was "modernly supplemented" for today's exhibition preparation, so Angelika Abegg-Wigg, curator of the Iron Age at the Museum of Archeology Schloss Gottorf.
The hazel rod is of particular importance:it is considered a possible indication of strangulation as the cause of death. That could only be the young woman's lover, according to the quick assumption that was spread in newspapers at the time. The speculation about a forbidden love story in the Iron Age has persisted for decades. Even movies and thrillers revolve around their destiny.
Researcher disenchants Mar from the indecent delinquent
Doubts about the gender of the first corpse flared up in the 1960s, but did not initially gain acceptance among experts and, above all, among the general public. But then the Schleswig bog body researcher Michael Fee disenchanted the myth of the immoral delinquent - and from 1979 the past of the mummy was viewed from a new perspective. Because Fee refutes the indication of the alleged moral misconduct of the "moor girl":According to Fee, the supposedly obscene gesture with the fingers only played a role from the Middle Ages.
The bog body only got the "fig gesture" of the fingers after its discovery.In addition, the researcher can use a photo from the excavation in 1952 to prove that the hand of the corpse was only deformed into a "fig" when it was stored in a transport box or in the laboratory. Possibly out of an artistic drive, because the curator at the time is not a scientist, he was trained as a painter. He developed the Textile Museum in Neumünster and finally took over the preservation sites in the Archaeological State Museum in Gottorf Castle. According to a "Spiegel" report, he has often manipulated preparations. And according to the fee, the "blindfold" is just a slipped headband. The remains of a hat would also be an option. An execution is therefore unlikely.
No relationship between the two "moor people"
To further solve the mystery, comparative radiocarbon dating will be carried out in 2002. They show that there is a gap of at least 144, if not around 300 years between the time of death of both people found in the moor. The man died between 185 and 380 BC, well before the "girl". That means the two had nothing to do with each other. There is no such thing as a romantic love story that ended in tragedy.
"Windeboy":The "Girl from Windeby" is a boy
Recent research refutes the "girl version" definitively. The Canadian anthropologist and coroner Heather Gill-Robinson suspects in the course of her research that it could be a boy because of the pronounced eye bulges. She runs the corpse in Kiel through computer tomographs and removes DNA material from the inside of the bones. Their investigations last about three years. In 2006, she was able to prove almost without a doubt that it was a male corpse - a 16-year-old boy who died around 2,000 years ago from a severe dental disease. "I christen him Windeboy," jokes Gill-Robinson after her discovery.
Their investigations yielded no evidence of a violent cause of death. For this, she notes growth disorders. Hunger is said to have hit the child several times at the time. The delicate bones could have been the result of a deficiency symptom. The researcher describes the boy as "unhealthy, very slight, 165 centimeters tall".
Permanent exhibition in Schleswig shows four more bog bodies
The "Child of Windeby" can be seen in the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Archeology at Schloss Gottorf in Schleswig. According to curator Abegg-Wigg, four other bog bodies from the Roman Empire (1st to 4th centuries AD) are on display there. Thanks to the conservational effect of the bogs, these corpses are well preserved. Two more bog bodies are kept in the museum's find store, one of them is the "Man from Windeby". They are not available to the public.
There are many rumours, assumptions and explanations as to why the dead were dumped in the moor. Victims of Crime or Sacrifices to the Gods? A simple burial is also possible. It is considered the most likely reason in the "Child of Windeby".