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We need to think in terms of developing 'best practice' for excavating future bog bodies, drawing on contemporary approaches to investigating homicides, writes Rosie Everett, Benjamin Gearey, and Karl Harrison
After a civilian reported seeing human bones sticking out of a peat bog in Northern Ireland, police went to investigate the discovery. There, they found a well-preserved skeleton of a teenage boy with portions of
Police officers in Northern Ireland received a call about a dead body in a bog and eventually determined it originated more than 2,000 years ago.
When the Police Service of Northern Ireland received a call about human remains in October 2023, they thought there was a good chance they were about to see a crime scene. The October 2023 tip was about a body sticking out at Bellaghy Bog in Londonderry County, Northern Ireland, per Smithsonian Magazine. Police officers found that parts of the skin on the body were still pink and intact, and the kidney was still malleable when touched, Deehan said in an interview with the Financial Times.
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Nicknamed the "Bellaghy Boy," he was likely between 13 and 17 when he died around 500 B.C.E.