Writing Group: Weird Topics

So this was an odd and fun prompt. The prompt was to write about an obscure topic that we enjoyed. Yes, my topic of choice is weird but history and nature are weird. This is as much history lesson as it is writing prompt.

I hope you enjoy it and I would love to know what obscure and odd topics fascinate you. Let me know in the comments. Happy writing!

Peat Bog Preservation

Bog people sound like people that live near or work around peat bogs until you learn that another name for them is bog bodies. Bog people have undergone a natural mummification process – many still have skin, internal organs, faces. I ended up down this hyperfixation rabbit hole because of a book. That should come to no one’s surprise. 

Meet Me at the Museum is an adorable book written in the form of letters that eventually develop into friendship and maybe love but before all of the gushy stuff the first letter asks about the Tollund Man, a bog body discovered in Denmark. This man died in the Iron Age, somewhere around the 5th century BCE and was pulled out of the peat in the 1950’s. Those that discovered him thought he was a recent death, possibly a murder victim, because of the level of preservation. You can still see his preserved head at the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, the body is a replica based on his skeleton. 

Fun fact, many bog bodies might have been sacrificed. The Tollund Man was hanged but as punishment or as part of a ritual no one is quite sure. 

This odd rabbit hole led me to bog butter – which is about as weird as it sounds. Bog butter is dairy or sometimes animal fat stored in earthen containers that were then buried in bogs. Some of these were buried for preservation, natural refrigeration, but it’s also thought that some could have been buried as offerings to deities or maybe ancient people just liked how the peat changed the flavor. Either way after centuries in a high acid, low-oxygen environment the butter turns waxy. 

Like the bog people, some of this bog butter has been in the peat since the iron age. Apparently, iron age Irish people were like squirrels with acorns when it came to long-time storage for their butter because a couple hundred samples of bog butter have been found over the years. While neat to find and learn about, if you find bog butter, the recommendation is not to eat it. 

If you ever get the chance to walk across a peat bog, you might consider that there are odd historical things potentially beneath your feet.

Thank you KW Photography for allowing me to use your wonderful photos!

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