Woman of Zweeloo
Bog body from the Netherlands
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The Woman of Zweeloo or Zweeloo Woman was a woman from the 1st–3rd century CE whose remains were found as a bog body near Zweeloo, Drenthe, Netherlands, in 1951.[1][2]
She was aged between 35 and 50 when she died. Much of her skin, bones and internal organs has been preserved, with some of the bones showing cuts from peat-diggers' tools.[1]
Discovery
The individual now known as the Woman of Zweeloo lay buried in the Juffersveen bog near Gelpenberg, close to the village of Zweeloo in the province of Drenthe, Netherlands, until she was discovered by peat cutters on 5 December 1951.[3][2] She was lying about 45 centimetres (18 in) below the surface and was uncovered during commercial peat cutting. After realising that they had found human remains, the workers notified the mayor of Zweeloo, who called in specialists to document and recover her.[3]
Before she was lifted from the bog, the specialists recorded where she lay and collected pollen samples from the surrounding peat. The samples were intended to help establish when she had been deposited and whether the natural layers of the bog had been disturbed. She was then placed in a zinc coffin and transported to the city of Groningen for conservation and study.[3][2]
The pollen showed a break in the natural sequence of peat layers, indicating that she had been placed in a shallow pit. The pit gradually disappeared as new peat formed above her during the following centuries. The cold, acidic and waterlogged conditions preserved much of her skin, skeleton and internal organs, although peat-cutting tools damaged the front of her body before specialists reached the site.[4][2] She was later preserved in a bath of glycerol.[5]
No clothing, jewellery or other grave goods were found with her.[3][2] An initial pollen analysis dated her burial to around 500 BCE, but later radiocarbon dating placed her death in the Roman Iron Age.[6][4][2] Her remains were transferred to the Drents Museum in Assen in 1984, 33 years after her discovery.[3]
