Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination

“For me, archaeology has its muses; in Karin Sanders’s hands, these muses are very much with us, for she understands archaeology in relation to the literature, the poetry, the historical trajectories of each and every find. In her study of bog people, Sanders has brought together many voices that are not usually in conversation, presenting a dramatically new set of interlocking perspectives—a new kaleidoscopic pattern. This book is a delight to read, a skillful and ingenious accomplishment, a dexterous weaving of new ideas about a much-debated phenomenon that has long sparked our imaginations.  What Sanders has done here makes me rejoice in what a creative mind can do, and in how readers will inevitably come away with all sorts of new understandings. Brava!”

"I found this book a joy to read because, unlike most archaeological studies, it combines scholarship with superb literary style, the whole salted by the provision of numerous imaginative pathways. I, for one, will never study or write about bog bodies in the same way again and I will try to ensure that the same is true of my students. Despite the few caveats mentioned above, it is a work of true originality that lifts bog victims out of their purely archaeological dimension and travels with them on a journey towards enlightenment. Early on in the study, the author speaks of bog bodies being embalmed with words. That is nowhere more true than in this book."

“What a wonderful, wonderful book this is. I absolutely loved Bodies in the Bog and everything about it, from the thoughtful approach and beautiful writing to the well-contextualized discussions of bog bodies in psychology, poetry, art, museum display, and facial reconstruction. A truly interdisciplinary study clearly based on years of passionate research, it offers a rich and nuanced explanation of what makes these bodies so fascinating, appealing, and troubling.”

“A rare conjunction of brilliant research with lyrical feeling. At once gripping, enlightening, and deeply moving, this stunning book offers a mind-boggling trek across space and time, life and death, torment and ecstasy. By turns ventriloquist and taxidermist, Karin Sanders resurrects bog beings from the limbo of their burial. They are reborn through the curious eyes and creative hands of poets and painters, sculptors and scholars, as both saints and ghosts—like saints miraculously indestructible, like ghosts haunting us with eerie memories. And her fabulous bog bodies at length mirror ourselves. They are our own doppelgängers, doubles displaced from time immemorial.”