2,000-year-old decapitated body found in Northern Ireland bog may have been sacrificed
'On initial examination, we couldn't be sure if the remains were ancient or the result of a more recent death,' Detective Inspector Nikki Deehan said in a January 2024 news release from the Northern Ireland Police Service. 'Therefore, we proceeded to excavate the body with full forensic considerations in a sensitive and professional manner. This approach ensures that any DNA evidence could be secured for any potential criminal investigation.'
The remains were carbon-dated, and researchers found they belonged to someone from more than 2,000 years ago, according to police.
Archaeologists at the time believed the body belonged to a teenage boy, between the ages of 13 and 17, but noted that the head was not found with the rest of the remains.
Now, after a year of scientific study, the research team has not only realized the body belongs to a woman, but she may have been the victim of a gruesome sacrifice.
'Dating to approximately 343 to 1 BCE, the remains are over 2,000 years old and date to the prehistoric period known as the Iron Age,' researchers said in a Feb. 20 release from the National Museums of Northern Ireland. 'Osteoarchaeological analysis has now revealed the body to be female, a discovery made all the more significant as the majority of bog preserved individuals that have been found from this period are male.'
Initial excavations found bones from the arms, legs, fingers and breastbone, police said. Because the body had been well preserved in the bog environment, researchers also found partial skin, fingernails from the left hand, some toenails and what appears to be a kidney.
The woman stood about 5 feet, 6 inches tall, researchers said, but the remains stopped at her neck.
'While the body was well preserved, the skull was absent and not recovered,' researchers said. 'Cut marks on the neck vertebrae indicate the cause of death as an intentional decapitation in the bog.'
Her death is now a 2,000-year-old murder investigation.
'This may be part of a pattern of ritual and sacrifice during the Iron Age period,' researchers said.
Along with her body, archaeologists also discovered parts of a woven item that was below her knees that has yet to be identified, according to National Museums of Northern Ireland.
Preserved ancient bodies found in watery environments, colloquially called 'bog bodies,' are not the same as intentionally preserved remains through mummification practices.
Bogs are low-oxygen environments and prevent decay, and chemicals like tannins — used in tanning leather — preserve even the organic tissues from human remains, according to Britannica.
Many famous bog bodies have violent causes of death, ranging from strangulation to slit throats, suggesting throwing a body in the bog during the Iron Age was intentional.
'Ballymacombs More Woman is certainly one of the most important archaeological discoveries on the island of Ireland. This important discovery gives us a glimpse into the lives of the people of our ancient past and offers insights into how they lived, interacted with their environment, and developed their cultures,' Niamh Baker, curator of archaeology at National Museums of Northern Ireland, said in the release.
The body was found in Bellaghy, in central Northern Ireland.
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22-06-2025
- Buzz Feed
50 Genuinely Surprising Historical Facts
Until the 18th century, it was common practice to put animals on trial. What were their crimes, you ask? Rodents and other pests were often tried for damaging crops, while pigs were often tried for the murder of children (with at least one executed by hanging). Bestiality was another crime that animals were tried for (despite certainly not being a willing participant). The guillotine was used as a method of execution in France until Sept. 10, 1977. The last person executed this way was Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend. France outlawed capital punishment in 1981, officially ending the usage of the guillotine. The world's oldest known joke dates back to 1900 BCE in Sumer and it was...a fart joke. Here it is: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap." I'm thinking the punch line was lost in translation?(The image above is an example of Sumerian writing from the time period of the fart joke and was recorded for posterity, but it's slightly more sophisticated — it's about medical practices.) The Tollund Man — a naturally mummified corpse of a man from the 5th century CE — was found in a bog in Denmark in 1950. His facial features were so well preserved that he was mistaken for a recent murder victim. A common ingredient in medicine until the 20th century was — yuck! — human remains. The remains were most commonly ground up into a fine powder that could be made into pills or stirred into drinks. It was believed that ingesting a certain part of the deceased's body would help to cure illnesses in that part of the body. For example, crushed skull powder was believed to cure headaches. Mexican General Santa Anna had an elaborate state funeral for his amputated leg. The general (and Mexican president) had to have his leg amputated after being hit with cannon fire during a battle against the French in the Pastry War of 1838–1839. Later, he ordered a lavish military-style ceremony (including cannon fire and poems), and buried it with honors. That isn't the end of his leg's, uh, leg-end. After Santa Anna fled the country following his failed administration, people dug up his leg and dragged it through the streets until nothing was left. Saddam Hussein was given the key to the city of Detroit in 1980. Backstory: After Hussein rose to power in the late '70s, Rev. Jacob Yasso of Chaldean Sacred Heart sent Hussein congratulations, and in return, Hussein donated $250,000 to the church. (Chaldeans are a Catholic group in the mainly Muslim Iraq.) Years later, the reverend visited Iraq and, with the mayor of Detroit's blessing, presented him with a key to the city. Billionaire Jeff Bezos is today's richest person with a net worth of $100+ billion, but, according to modern estimates, historical figures like Augustus Caesar and Mansa Musa (ruler of West Africa's Mali Empire in the 14th century) were likely trillionaires by today's standards. The first known vending machine was invented by Hero of Alexandria in ancient Egypt to dispense holy water. It worked a lot like modern vending machines — you inserted a coin, pushed down a lever, and got your soda...I mean holy water! Ketchup was originally sold as a medicine in the 19th century. In the 1830s, ketchup was sold as a medicine that could cure indigestion, diarrhea, and even jaundice. While the medicinal claims were later debunked, the condiment caught on. Man, I wish I lived in a time when a bunch of ketchup on fries was considered health food! Ancient Romans used urine as a cleaning agent for laundry. They didn't have soap back then, so they had to improvise. And, it turns out, stagnant urine was full of ammonia, which we still use to clean today. Beethoven continued to compose music even after becoming completely deaf at age 40 (16 years before his death). Despite being deaf, he still managed to compose one of his most famous symphonies — "Symphony No. 9," aka The Ninth. It goes without saying that it is pretty damn impressive! In 1931, psychologist Winthrop Kellogg and his wife Luella decided to raise their infant son, Donald, alongside a baby chimpanzee named Gua to see whether Gua could learn human behaviors and maybe even develop language. At first, Gua walked, understood commands, and even solved problems faster. But then something unexpected happened. Instead of Gua becoming more human, Donald started grunting like a chimp and copying Gua's behavior. Alarmed, the Kelloggs ended the experiment after just nine months. (Note: The above image is not of Donald and Gua, but some other kid/chimp combo from the '50s. What was going on back then, LOL?) The Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (where Mexico City now stands) was larger and more sophisticated than many European cities when the Spanish arrived in 1519. With an estimated population of 200,000–300,000 inhabitants, Tenochtitlan was significantly larger than London (which only had 50,000–70,000 people), and Paris (about 200,000). Tenochtitlan's infrastructure was better, too, with advanced aqueducts, causeways, floating agricultural fields, and even efficient waste management Spaniards' siege and the aftermath all but destroyed the great city that was. In 1518, a "dancing plague" in Strasbourg caused people to dance uncontrollably for days. It started when a woman named Frau Troffea began dancing uncontrollably. Within days, dozens of others joined her, and the phenomenon grew to involve hundreds of people. The "dancers" seemed unable to stop, with some collapsing or even dying from exhaustion, strokes, or heart did they do this, you ask? Some conjecture it was a case of mass hysteria, while another theory suggests that the dancers may have ingested bread contaminated with ergot, a toxic fungus. Ergot contains chemicals similar to yeah. The shortest war in history, between Britain and Zanzibar in 1896, lasted only 38 minutes. The war was fought over who should succeed the recently deceased pro-British Sultan. A Prince — Khālid bin Barghash — refused to let the British install another pro-British ruler and occupied the Sultan's palace. But when the Royal Navy fired on the palace, sending it up in flames and killing 500 of Khālid's men, that was pretty much all she wrote. Chopsticks predate the fork by some 4,500 years. The first forks were used by the ruling class in the Middle East and the Byzantine Empire around 1,000 A.D. They were frowned upon in Europe, though, for the next several hundred years because they were thought to be a tool of the devil. John Scott Harrison is the only person to watch both his father and son become president of the United States. For his part, John Scott Harrison was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio from 1853 to 1857. Not exactly president, but not bad! People were so afraid of being buried alive in the 18th and 19th century that inventors patented safety coffins that would give the "dead" the ability to alert those above ground if they were still alive. Speaking of being buried alive, military genius Alexander the Great may have been. The historical record of his death is filled with unusual details, including that his body didn't decompose at all in the six days following his supposed death (a fact many attributed to his divinity). Today, doctors believe it is possible he'd become paralyzed due to a neurological disorder called Guillain-Barré Syndrome, and was mistaken as dead as a result. Famously, in 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the city of Pompeii in volcanic ash. What you might not know, though, is that the ash preserved a lot of everyday items. Below is a loaf of bread baked the morning of the eruption, so almost 2,000 years ago! The bread — which you can tell looked pretty damn tasty out of the oven — was found during the excavations in Pompeii. Marie Curie is the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences (physics and chemistry). The pioneer in radiology was the first woman, the first double winner, and only in two sciences! The world's first recorded police force was established in ancient Egypt around 3000 BCE. Back then, Egypt was split into 42 jurisdictions, and the pharaoh would appoint an official for each one whose job was to ensure justice and security. Each official had a chief of police he worked with whose title was sab heri seker, or, when translated to English, 'chief of the hitters." Sounds like police work hasn't changed much over the years! In the 19th century, dentures were often made using the teeth of deceased soldiers. A famous example? Looters, uh, looted the teeth of the thousands of dead soldiers at the Battle of Waterloo and sold them for top dollar. Real teeth were in such demand, in fact, that many poor people sold their teeth right out of their mouths. Speaking of dentures, here is a photo of what's likely the most famous dentures ones belonging to George Washington, circa 1789–1799. It's commonly believed his dentures were made of wood, but these weren't — they were made of lead, human teeth, cow teeth, and elephant ivory. The dentures are on display in the museum located at Mount Vernon, Washington's former home and plantation, located in Fairfax County, Virginia. Humans, by the way, have been cleaning their teeth for thousands of years. For example, Egyptians invented toothpaste over 5,000 years ago using things like powdered ox hooves, eggshells, pumice, and water. Their formula was a little different than Colgate's — it included powdered ashes from oxen hooves, myrrh, egg shells, pumice, and water. Last one on teeth, I promise! Below is a teeth cleaning kit from 350 or so years ago in England — including a toothbrush, dental powder, and tongue scraper — and it looks pretty similar to what we use today. Before the Revolutionary War, the American colonies would vote by voice, often at places like carnivals where they may or may not have been drunk by the time voting happened. To vote, you just called out your choice. As you can imagine, this voting method was very susceptible to corruption!(I couldn't find an image of pre-Revolutionary War voting, but I thought the one above was interesting — it's a polling booth in 1840s NY!) Death masks — made out of a wax or plaster cast put on a dead person's face — have long been part of human history. Below is the death mask of notorious Depression-era gangster John Dillinger, who died in a shootout with FBI agents on July 22, 1934 (note the bullet hole captured under his right eye): The original London Bridge is now located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch bought the bridge in 1968, dismantled it, and then shipped it piece by piece to the US and reconstructed it as a tourist attraction. The first computer programmer was Ada Lovelace in the 19th century. No, she wasn't programming on a MacBook Air — it was the 1800s — but she became a colleague of Charles Babbage, who had designed a calculating machine and was working on an even more sophisticated one. In working with Babbage and fellow mathematician Luigi Menabrea, Lovelace discovered that these machines could carry out complex sequences of mathematical operations. The example she wrote to demonstrate her idea is regarded as the first ever computer program. The Great Wall of China is not a single continuous wall but a series of interconnected fortifications. Also, it was built (and rebuilt) over a long period of time, so the sections are often different based on the engineering and military practices of each time. Napoleon Bonaparte was once attacked by a herd of rabbits during a hunting trip. The story came from the memoirs of French general Baron Thiébault, who said that while on a hunting trip, a herd of rabbits swarmed Napoleon, seemingly mistaking him for a source of food. He was forced to retreat to his carriage to escape the "bunny onslaught." Pablo Picasso's full name has 20 words. Here's the name he was baptized with: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Crispiniano María de los Remedios de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz you think when his mom was mad at him she called him by his full name? The first human flight was achieved by the Montgolfier brothers in a hot air balloon in 1783. Talk about brave! The brothers flew 3,000 feet above Paris for a distance of about 5.6 miles. After 25 minutes, the balloon landed safely outside the city. And, of course, Orville and Wilbur Wright invented, built, and flew the first successful airplane in 1903. But did you know it still exists and is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.? Speaking of cool things you can still see — these are the contents of Abraham Lincoln's pockets on the night he was assassinated, April 14, 1865. You can see them at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Lincoln had two pairs of glasses and a lens polisher, a pocketknife, a watch fob, a handkerchief, a wallet (containing a five-dollar Confederate note), and newspaper clippings, many of which touted his successes. The longest-reigning monarch in history was Louis XIV of France, who ruled for 72 years and 110 days. How did he manage this? He ascended to the throne at just 4 years of age, and ruled competently enough to avoid any coup attempts. The Eiffel Tower was initially intended to be dismantled after 20 years. The reason? It was only built as a temporary structure for the 1889 World's Fair (and was only permitted for use until 1909). The tower survived for different reasons than you're likely imagining. It wasn't because it had become a landmark, but because (at least initially) of its value as a radiotelegraph station. Ancient Greek athletes competed in the nude to honor Zeus and display the human form. Interestingly, they also did it to allow for ease of movement (this was long before spandex, LOL), and to not give the upper class an advantage by rolling in wearing fancy sporting clothes. Want one more fun fact? Gymnastics is derived from the Greek work "gymnos," meaning naked. The oldest known written laws, the Code of Ur-Nammu, date back to around 2100 BCE. It was written by a Sumerian king and covered, among other things, protection of property, family law (to divorce, a man was required to pay a kind of spousal support), and punishment for false allegations. The Statue of Liberty was originally intended to represent an Egyptian peasant woman. The statue's designer, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, originally envisioned building a colossal monument featuring a robe-clad Egyptian woman to celebrate the inauguration of the Suez Canal in Egypt. But when the Egyptians passed on the idea, Bartholdi pivoted to pitch it for the centennial celebration of the US/French alliance. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been slowly straightening over the past few decades due to engineering efforts. Since 1990 — when it was feared the tower was on the verge of collapse — an international team has worked to reverse the lean. Since then, the tower has been straightened by nearly two inches. It doesn't sound like much, but it's made a huge difference! Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952 but declined. Unsurprisingly, Einstein wanted to continue his career in science, especially considering his political experience was practically zilch. In June of 1520, England's Henry VIII and France's Francis I threw a joint 18-day party that cost $19 million by today's standards. It was so expensive because the two leaders kept trying to outdo each other. Each feast served 50 different dishes of the time's finest and rarest foods, including swans and dolphins. Queen Elizabeth I owned over 2,000 pairs of gloves. It wasn't because she was obsessed with gloves, though. Most of her collection was given to her as diplomatic or political gifts. Chain letters have their origins in ancient times — even Ancient Egypt's Book of the Dead included a section that promised "great heaven and earth" to anyone who copies a specific image. Approximately 750,000 men died in the Civil War, which was more than 2.5% of America's population at the time. In Boston on January 15, 1919, a massive storage tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses broke and sent a 15-foot tall flood of the sticky stuff flowing through town, killing 21 people. The 11 dead mentioned in the headline was later raised to 21. Lastly, in the year 1800, the world population totaled 1 billion. Today — 225 years later — the world's population is more than eight times larger (8.2 billion).
San Francisco Chronicle
16-06-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Be proud, Californians: You, me and Sen. Padilla are all outlaws now
I'm not just your columnist. I'm your outlaw. I'm not telling you this to seem cool. Or to sell a country album. I am telling you that, officially, I am a criminal, according to the United States of America. If you're a Californian, you might be one, too. To be sure, my criminality isn't entirely my fault, and yours likely isn't, either. I haven't knocked over any banks or defrauded investors. At least not yet. But I have chosen to make my life in Los Angeles. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently declared that my city is not a 'city of immigrants' but 'a city of criminals.' She clearly means everybody in L.A., even U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, who was handcuffed for his crime of asking her a question. Now, when you think of people acting outside the law, Sen. Padilla and I — Angeleno fathers of three boys who attended fancy Boston-area colleges — probably don't come to mind. But we are criminals. Rebels, too. Again, not bragging here. The president of the United States officially confirmed my rebel status in a June 7 memorandum to Noem, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi. In that correspondence, President Donald Trump wrote that Californians who protest mass deportation — as many do on the streets and as I do in my commentary — are engaged in 'a form of rebellion against the authority of the United States.' Trump doesn't make a distinction between us journalists, who cover demonstrations, and the actual protesters (he's called us all 'human scum'). Of course, the people in those protests don't say they're rebelling against the U.S. They do express anger that U.S. immigration authorities are grabbing their friends and relatives off the streets, without warrants, identification or knowing if the arrestees are subject to deportation. But, hey, if interviewing such 'protesters' makes me a rebel in the eyes of Uncle Sam, well, I'll take it! I'd like to be a cool, James Dean-style rebel. But no, the president also says I, and my fellow Californians who object to his systemic rights violations, are 'insurrectionists.' That means, according to Britannica, that I'm part of 'an organized and usually violent act of revolt or rebellion against an established government or governing authority.' I don't remember ever trying to overthrow the government, and as a rule, I avoid joining organized enterprises (which is why I work in media). But I'm apparently so dangerous to the American government that Trump has called in the Marines to stop me. Now, you may think I'm just making fun. But I'm taking these accusations against me seriously. Trump is a convicted criminal (multiple felonies in New York), a rebel (in a racist Confederate way) and an insurrectionist (Jan. 6). When Trump calls me those things, he is speaking from long personal experience. So, I respect Trump's judgment and embrace these labels. Trump labeling me — and other Californians — as rebels is a gift to our side of this little civil war. He is granting us permission to behave badly. One reason liberals and sunny Californians are so bad at fighting is their overly developed belief in benevolence. They want to be good people, and they devote considerable energy to policing the behavior of their allies. But in a fight with a nasty criminal enterprise — like the Trump administration — we can't worry about saving our souls or moral purity. We must keep on saving our communities and our most vulnerable people from those who deploy soldiers against us, from those who would sacrifice our lives in their pursuit of power. Facing an American 'dirty war,' we may have to fight dirty. Especially because we are fighting alone. In this Los Angeles moment, our local leaders have called many of our peaceful assemblies unlawful. They have even blamed us, the targets of federal violence, for protesting too aggressively. Our police attack us (with 'less lethal rounds) even as they protect the federal agents whose lawless behavior is the real cause of the conflict. And our politicians, instead of joining us in the streets, criticize the flags that we fly, the graffiti and other words we write and the tone of our speech. Without much official support, we the people — we criminals, we rebels, we insurrectionists of California — must defend ourselves. We are left to create self-defense networks for our communities, like the California rapid response networks, to defend immigrants. Of course, the U.S. government regime will say that such defense networks are really gangs. The Trump regime might even use that as an excuse to send federal agents to infiltrate our neighborhood watches and self-defense organizations. Bring it on. Your columnist can hardly wait to be called a gangster.
Miami Herald
13-06-2025
- Miami Herald
Cicada ‘attack' causes panicked driver to crash, Ohio cops say. ‘Can be dangerous'
Summer has officially landed according to the cicadas being out and about in droves in Ohio. The Cincinnati area has been battling swarms of the irksome insects as viral videos have shown, but they ended up personally victimizing one human — and his car. A cicada managed to fly into the window of a car, causing the driver to crash, the Blue Ash Police Department said in a June 13 Facebook post. 'We're all well aware that these pesky cicadas don't respect personal space, including while driving. It may be a good idea to keep the windows up for the next several weeks,' the department said with a photo of a silver Kia on its side with a shattered windshield. The accident occurred when the panicked driver tried to shoo the insect out of the car when he veered and struck a pole, WLWT5 said. 'As you can see, a cicada attack can be dangerous. Fortunately, no one was injured in this crash. The suspect fled the scene,' the department joked. These types of cicadas are called 'periodical' and appear above ground every 17 years, Britannica says. 'The largest brood makes its appearance every 17 years, like clockwork, in the northeastern quarter of the United States. Shortly after a 17-year cicada nymph hatches from its egg, it burrows into the ground, where it spends—as its name suggests—the first 17 years of its life,' Britannica notes. 'When it emerges from the ground, it lives only four to six more weeks—just long enough to mate, fertilize or lay eggs, and start the cycle all over again.' Blue Ash is about a 20-minute drive northeast of Cincinnati.
