Lindow Man, also known as Lindow II and as Pete Marsh, is the preserved bog body of a man discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss near Wilmslow in Cheshire, North West England. The remains were found on 1 August 1984 by commercial peat cutters. Lindow Man is not the only bog body to have been found in the moss; Lindow Woman was discovered the year before, and other body parts have also been recovered. The find was described as "one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 1980s" and caused a media sensation. It helped invigorate the study of British bog bodies, which had previously been neglected.
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. Sphagnum moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most common components in peat, although many other plants can contribute. The biological features of sphagnum mosses act to create a habitat aiding peat formation, a phenomenon termed 'habitat manipulation'. Soils consisting primarily of peat are known as histosols. Peat forms in wetland conditions, where flooding or stagnant water obstructs the flow of oxygen from the atmosphere, slowing the rate of decomposition. Peat properties such as organic matter content and saturated hydraulic conductivity can exhibit high spatial heterogeneity.
A bog body is a human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. Such bodies, sometimes known as bog people, are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between 8000 BC and the Second World War. The unifying factor of the bog bodies is that they have been found in peat and are partially preserved; however, the actual levels of preservation vary widely from perfectly preserved to mere skeletons.
A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials – often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; alkaline mires are called fens. A bayhead is another type of bog found in the forest of the Gulf Coast states in the United States. They are often covered in heath or heather shrubs rooted in the sphagnum moss and peat. The gradual accumulation of decayed plant material in a bog functions as a carbon sink.
Risley Moss is an area of peat bog situated near Birchwood in Warrington, England. It is a country park, Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Local Nature Reserve. It covers an area of 210.5 acres (85.2 ha) and is one of the last remaining fragments of the raised bogs that once covered large areas of South Lancashire and North Cheshire.
Wilmslow is a market town and civil parish in Cheshire, England. It is 11 mi (18 km) south of Manchester and within the unitary authority of Cheshire East. The population was 24,497 at the 2011 Census.
Ballynahone Bog is a raised bog, situated in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, about 3 km south of Maghera, on low-lying ground immediately north of the Moyola River about 14 km from its mouth at Lough Neagh. It is one of the largest lowland raised bogs in Northern Ireland.
Delamere Forest is a large wood in the village of Delamere in Cheshire, England. The woodland, which is managed by Forestry England, covers an area of 972 hectares making it the largest area of woodland in the county. It contains a mixture of deciduous and evergreen trees.
Chat Moss is a large area of peat bog that makes up part of the City of Salford, Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. It also makes up part of Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in Merseyside and Warrington in Cheshire. North of the Manchester Ship Canal and River Mersey, 5 miles (8 km) to the west of Manchester, it occupies an area of about 10.6 square miles (27.5 km2).
Lindow Common is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on the western edge of the town of Wilmslow, Cheshire, in the northwest of England. It is also designated a Local Nature Reserve.
Lindow Woman and Lindow I are the names given to the partial remains of a female bog body, discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss, near Wilmslow in Cheshire, England, on 13 May 1983 by commercial peat-cutters. The remains were largely a skull fragment, which was missing its jaw, but with soft tissue and hair attached. The remains were subsequently dated to the Roman period. The remains became more technically known as Lindow I after the discovery of other remains in the same bog, which were identified as Lindow Man or Lindow II in 1984 and Lindow III in 1987.
The Haraldskær Woman is the name given to a bog body of a woman preserved in a bog in Jutland, Denmark, and dating from about 490 BC. Workers found the body in 1835 while excavating peat on the Haraldskær Estate. The anaerobic conditions and acids of the peat bog contributed to the body's excellent preservation. Not only was the intact skeleton found, but so were the skin and internal organs. Scientists settled disputes about the age and identity of this well-preserved body in 1977, when radiocarbon dating determined conclusively that the woman's death occurred around the 5th century BC.
Red Moss is a wetland mossland in Greater Manchester, located south of Horwich and east of Blackrod. This is a national Site of Special Scientific Interest in the United Kingdom, due to its biodiversity and undisturbed character. Pollen analysis has revealed the first peat deposits of the northwest's mosslands to be from around 8,000 years BC making Red Moss an impressive 10,000 years old. Red Moss covers an area of 47.2 hectares. A severed female head was discovered in Red Moss in the 19th century dating from the Bronze Age or early Iron Age.
Hatfield Moors is a 1400.7 hectare biological site of Special Scientific Interest in South Yorkshire. The site was notified in 1954. The site is managed by Natural England.
Wybunbury Moss is a National Nature Reserve (NNR) and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) near the village of Wybunbury in Cheshire, England. It is a raised lowland bog, and a rare British example of a schwingmoor and a 'subsidence mire'.
Black Lake is a nature reserve in Delamere Forest, Cheshire, England. It lies in the southwestern corner of the forest, just south of the Manchester–Chester railway. It is managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust (CWT) on behalf of the Forestry Commission, and as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is monitored by Natural England.
Danes Moss Nature Reserve is a 13.4-hectare (33-acre) nature reserve south of Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. A Site of Special Scientific Interest, it is managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust.
Red Moor is a nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), noted for its biological characteristics, near Lanlivery in mid Cornwall, England, UK.
