TEST 10

Read the following article and choose which of the paragraphs below fit into the numbered gaps. There
is one extra paragraph which does not fit in any of the gap.
A. In addition to these, the forensic report on the body identified two further injuries, each of which on its
own would probably have been fatal. The head had been hit hard enough to send splinters of skull deep into
the brain and the man had also received a heavy blow in the centre of his back, breaking a rib.
B. But for what possible reason might these individuals end up in the bogs in the first place? The Danish
archaeologist P. V. Glob, in a popular book entitled The Bog People explored the notion of a bog religion.
He noticed that while bog bodies ranged from several thousands of years old to almost modern, many
seemed to originate from just a few centuries either side of the birth of Christ.
C. It came lo be realised that his clothes actually provide a unique insight into bronze-age European dress.
First, he was wrapped in an undergarment of coarsely-woven wool vith an embroidered hem that hung to
his knees. Then, over this he we re a skin cape, threaded close around his neck.
D. Today, he still feels deep affection for the man whose remains he saved then; he often talks of feeling
'protective', as if the deceased were a son. or a lost brother. It was unclear at first hut it soon became
obvious to Turner that he had stumbled on an extreme ly rare and important find.
E. This, however, is just one strand of a huge debate raging in the archaeological world and,
unfortunately opportunities to resolve the issues with new finds and modern analyses are fading rapidly.
Peat cutting exposed the bodies. But now incustrial peat quarrying and our huge appetite for garden peat
compost has all but removed the bogs.
F. In order to begin one's investigation into 'his weird world of bog bodies, it is important to realise that
while skin, hair, nails and internal organs can be exceptionally well preserved, bones are soft and pliable,
and may not even survive. It is the leathery, tanned skin that keeps things together. A good bog body is
literally a bag of bones and flesh.
G. Many things came of this work. A concentration of certain minerals on Lindow Man's skin suggested he
had been painted green or blue, and further research indicated that this might have been what Caesar was
referring to in a famous passage about painted Britons. The contents of his stomach were well-preserved.
And it appears that they consisted largely of a chapati-like bread made fre in two varieties of wheat and
barley.
⸎⸎⸎⸎⸎
It was just a flap of skin hanging out of the peat. It was soft and wrinkled hut unmistakably human
skin. It had actually come to light when one of the workers employed in cutting the peat (used in domestic
gardens) had thrown what looked like a piece of wood on to the ground. As the muck bounced off it, the
wood was revealed to be the lower part of a human leg with a foot attached. Rick Turner, the county
archaeologist was called and spent the next morning searching in the bog.
What Rick Turner was to unearth following the discovery of that stray human leg would become
known as LindoA' Man, alias Pete Marsh, the almost complete remains of someone estimated to have died
nearly 2,000 years ago. The find would change Turner's life. His name would be associated permanently
with one of the bes -known archaeological finds in Britain.
(1) ...................................................................................
In the end, it was not just Turner but more than 50 scientific specialists who contributed to the
British Museum's first substantial report on Lindow Man. And while "Pete Marsh" excited the press and
television (more than ten million viewers watched the first of two BBC programmes on the find), he
gripped academics too. He was at the centre of the type of multi-disciplinary project that has come to
characterise the best of modern archaeology.
(2) ...............................................................................
Hi-tech scientific analysis of the remnants of this last meal indicated it had been heated briefly to 200-250
degree Celsius - too hot for an oven but achievable on a griddle. He was a healthy, well built man about
5'6" tall, aged 25, with good teeth and fingernails. His short beard and moustache had been trimmed with
scissors. He was naked except for a fox fur armband worn just above his right elbow.
And his mode of death was, to say the least, curious. The first thing to be noticed was a hole in the top of
his head. ANd when his chin was gingerly lilted away from his chest, a neat cut in his throat was revealed.
(3)………………………………………………………………………..
In 1984, Lindow Man was thought to be the first bog body found in Britain. But it was well known that
there wen many such remains elsewhere in Europe. The new British find, and the large scientific project
that grew up around it, inspired archaeologists to take a fresh look at these remarkable discoveries, of

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which nearly 2,000 have now been catalogued. Who were all these people? How did they get into the bogs,
and why are they preserved so well?
(4)………………………………………………………………………..
It used to be thought that the key to preservation was peat bog water. The natural acidity dissolves the
minerals in bones leaving only the soft tissues. With no oxygen, on the other hand, corrupting bacteria
cannot act. Recent research has revealed another and more imporant factor, the ubiquitous peat-building
Sphagnum moss. This plant releases a chemical called sphagnan, "which both immobilises bacteria and tans
the bodies.
(5)..................................................................................
He noted as well that the Celts of northern Europe were said to drown deserters, cowards etc, in swamps.
To them, human sacrifice was a common punishment. Many of the best preserved bog bodies, it seems,
were spring sacrifices of such people to the Mother Goddess.
(6).................................................................................
With the loss of unique environments and ecosystems go the loss of the archaeology, and of the bogs as
repositories of myth and mystery. Unfortunately, an appreciation of this will increasingly have to depend
on books and museums. Unless the government can move rapidly to rein in the exploitation, the bogs
themselves will be but part of the myth. Who then are the bog murderers?