Channel 5 (UK) Documentaries

Murdered: The Bodies In the Bog (2013x31)

: 01, 2013

Archaeologist Melanie Giles sets out to solve one of history’s most intriguing murder mysteries...a rash of brutal killings carried out in peat bogs two thousand years ago. Using technology and forensic techniques more commonly employed by modern crime scene investigators, she teams up with leading forensic scientists and archaeologists to investigate the murders. These ancient victims, dozens in number, have been uncovered in bogs throughout Northern Europe for centuries – with the most recent unearthed only last winter. The remains are often astonishingly well-preserved; flesh, faces, fingernails, stomach contents and even hair have been mummified by the oxygen-free peat bogs in which the bodies were originally deposited. Many of the victims are strikingly similar: men in the prime of their life who have suffered hideous violence - they have been garrotted, their skulls smashed in, their throats slit and several have been decapitated before their burial in peat bogs. So who were these poor unfortunates? Who killed them, why, and why with such brutality? And why place the corpses in peat bogs? These are questions that have puzzled archaeologists for decades, but Melanie is determined to answer them. This gripping film unravels like an episode of CSI as Melanie scours the bodies and crime scenes hinting for clues... As in all good crime dramas the answer is elusive, and there’s a shocking twist in the tale – provided by the extraordinary results of a CT scan of one of the victim’s heads. What Melanie discovers not only explains the killings, it reveals a shocking truth about our ancestors and their brutal actions in times of crisis.