Well it's always interesting to see bog bodies isn't it, I so loved seeing them in the museum in Dublin. So I can't complain that there was an hour about them. But they had to shoehorn in an Exciting Angle and it kind of spoilt the programme for me. By which I mean, I thought the amazing thing about this particular bog body was that it was the oldest one they'd ever found, I think I'm right in saying by some margin. But they rolled out Ned Kelly with the hat who was insistent that it had to fit into the ritual murder theory that went with the more recent bodies. He leapt on everything that even vaguely fitted, and it was nice to see the coroner (?) vigorously deny that the back deformity came from an attack, but rather from being squashed in a bog for a few millennia. I thought he was really grabbing at straws towards the end, claiming all sorts of stuff about what was on the gundstrop cauldron, even though we were being shown it ourselves, and it didn't obviously match what he was saying about people being sacrificed etc.

And another thing, the chap with the testate amoebas doing his research about climate. I mean that's fair enough. But to extrapolate the killings were to do with fertility of crops changing, I thought that was pushing it a bit too far. If it was a long term change, why would anyone at any one point think it was unusual and therefore requiring of sacrificing your king? Surely you'd save such extreme measures for some totally mental downturn in the weather. Not something that was happening over hundreds of years.

Anyway apart from this desperate need to have something Dramatic (and there was a lot of reenacted throat slashing as well with squirty blood, as if we can't imagine that ourselves) it was quite interesting and watchable I thought. But nothing particularly new? Which was a shame really as this body is actually different because of its age. I think I'd just like a programme more about the different types of evidence they can glean from the bodies. Like their stomach contents, and the things they're wearing, or their beautifully manicured fingernails. That'd do for me.

oh but to be that chap doing the experimental archaeology for a living, Dr Billy somethingorother. Now that's a job I'd like.

not precisely on topic but...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7vnhAcLIoM

Having the telly on in the same room as where I was burning the midnight oil doing my accounts, I ended up watching it twice. Rather 'long on drama'. Always fascinating to see how people and artifacts can be naturally preserved. I was initially very impressed that it could even be established that the victim(?) was not a manual worker by the condition of his hands...then belatedly realised that this too was conjecture...as I am a gardener who works year round without gloves. Work being greatly affected by the inclement weather this last winter/spring, it was surprising how little time it took for my gnarly mitts to be transformed back into Fairy Liquid condition, without deliberately trying to achieve this. I do not accept that smooth hands can prove that the body was that of someone of high status, only that they had not done manual work for a few weeks for some reason. Illness? Captivity? A trader? I do not recall whether any DNA or other analysis was done to try to establish the deceaseds origins or whether they had modern descendants, but would have thought that the degree of preservation made an attempt at analysis of this nature possible.