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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Patrick Woodward.

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<v Speaker 2>And I'm Megan Nolette. Spotlight uses a special English method

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<v Speaker 2>of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no

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<v Speaker 2>matter where in the world they live.

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<v Speaker 1>On Monday, May the eighth, nineteen fifty, the Hoygoth family

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<v Speaker 1>discovered the body of a man. They found him face

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<v Speaker 1>down in the water. The body's skin was brown and hard,

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<v Speaker 1>like dried animal skin, and the body had a rope

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<v Speaker 1>around its neck. The body seemed so fresh that the

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<v Speaker 1>Hoygoths believed he had just been killed. But when the

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<v Speaker 1>police came, they understood that it was not a job

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<v Speaker 1>for them. It was a job for historians. The body

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<v Speaker 1>the Hoygoths had found was over two thousand years old.

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<v Speaker 2>Soon researchers gave this man a name, the Tolland Man,

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<v Speaker 2>and as they studied him, he became more mysterious. It

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<v Speaker 2>was clear that someone had killed him. They had hung

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<v Speaker 2>him by the neck. He wore no clothes except for

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<v Speaker 2>his shoes and a small hat, but the way he

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<v Speaker 2>had been buried seemed respectful. There was evidence that they

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<v Speaker 2>had even closed his eyes. Researchers did not know why

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<v Speaker 2>he had been killed.

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<v Speaker 1>People have discovered bodies like the Tolland Man's all over Europe.

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<v Speaker 1>There were even some in North America. Most of them

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<v Speaker 1>are murder victims, and all of them were buried in

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<v Speaker 1>special wetlands called bogs. Today's spotlight is on the mystery

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<v Speaker 1>of these bog people.

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<v Speaker 2>We do not know much about the people who hilled

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<v Speaker 2>the tall End Man. They lived in Denmark around five

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<v Speaker 2>hundred BCE. They had no written language. All we know

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<v Speaker 2>of them is the things they left behind. Researchers believe

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<v Speaker 2>that bogs were important to them. They may have been

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<v Speaker 2>places of religious worship. Joshua Levine is a writer at

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<v Speaker 2>Smithsonian Magazine. He explains.

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<v Speaker 3>To the people who put him there, a bog was

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<v Speaker 3>a special place. Most of northern Europe lay under a

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<v Speaker 3>thick forest, but bogs did not. They were half earth,

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<v Speaker 3>half water, and open to the sky. They must have

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<v Speaker 3>seemed like doorways to another world.

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<v Speaker 1>Bogs may have been important for another reason. They kept

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<v Speaker 1>things fresh. Today we know the reason. A special plant

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<v Speaker 1>called Sphagnum moss is in bogs. Sphagnum contains chemicals called phenols.

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<v Speaker 1>These natural chemicals slow down the decaying process. Bogs also

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<v Speaker 1>have little oxygen in their water. Most bacteria cannot grow there,

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<v Speaker 1>so objects placed in bogs rarely decay. Researchers in Ireland

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<v Speaker 1>have even found butter made from cow's milk in bogs.

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<v Speaker 1>The butter was still safe to eat. It was almost

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<v Speaker 1>two thousand years old.

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<v Speaker 2>The people who killed the Tolland Man probably knew that

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<v Speaker 2>bogs could stop decay. They often placed other objects in bogs,

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<v Speaker 2>like swords. These may have been sacrifices to their gods.

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<v Speaker 2>Experts believe that the Tolland Man may have been a

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<v Speaker 2>sacrifice as well. The people who buried him did so

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<v Speaker 2>with special care. They put him in the bog in

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<v Speaker 2>a sleeping position. This shows he had a special place

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<v Speaker 2>in their society. Miranda Aldous Green is a teacher at

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<v Speaker 2>Cardiff University in Wales. She told NBC News.

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<v Speaker 1>If you put a body in the bog, it would

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<v Speaker 1>not decay. It would stay between the worlds of the

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<v Speaker 1>living and the dead. Other bog bodies may have also

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<v Speaker 1>been sacrifices, but the way they died was very different.

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<v Speaker 1>Old krochhen Man is the name of a body found

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<v Speaker 1>in Ireland. He was probably a king or some kind

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<v Speaker 1>of ruler. He was very tall for the time and

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<v Speaker 1>had smooth hands.

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<v Speaker 2>The old Krogin Man died from a knife to his chest.

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<v Speaker 2>His killers then cut off his head. They cut his

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<v Speaker 2>body in half. They cut his chest in many places.

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<v Speaker 2>Then they placed his body in the bog. Some researchers

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<v Speaker 2>believe he was killed because he failed to provide for

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<v Speaker 2>his people. The old Krogan Man may have angered these

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<v Speaker 2>people's gods. The people may have thought his death would

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<v Speaker 2>help them.

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<v Speaker 1>Other bog bodies may not have been so important. Some

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<v Speaker 1>may have been criminals killed for their crimes. Tacitus was

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<v Speaker 1>a writer who lived in the Roman Empire in the

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<v Speaker 1>first century CE. He often wrote about history and other cultures.

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<v Speaker 1>He discussed how some people in Northern Europe manage their

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<v Speaker 1>criminals in his book Germania.

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<v Speaker 4>They hang cheets and deserters from trees. People who do

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<v Speaker 4>not want to go to war and who practice unlawful

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<v Speaker 4>sex are punished differently. They push these offenders into the

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<v Speaker 4>wet ground of a bog. They hold the criminals down

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<v Speaker 4>with large wooden fences.

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<v Speaker 2>Experts are not sure if Tacitus knew the truth, he

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<v Speaker 2>wrote down what other people told him. He never visited

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<v Speaker 2>Northern Europe, but his writings are some of the only

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<v Speaker 2>texts that experts have on these traditions.

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<v Speaker 1>People have discovered bodies in bogs in Denmark, Ireland, Germany, England,

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<v Speaker 1>the Netherlands, Poland, Norway, and Sweden. The National Museum of

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<v Speaker 1>Ireland in Dublin hosts a display of some of these bodies.

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<v Speaker 1>But Europe is not the only place where bog bodies exist.

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<v Speaker 1>Some have been found in North America, but these bodies

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<v Speaker 1>are very different from the ones found in Europe. Most

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<v Speaker 1>of the people in these sites died peacefully. The people

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<v Speaker 1>found there were ancient Native Americans. They may have buried

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<v Speaker 1>their dead in water.

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<v Speaker 2>One place in Florida contained many skeletons, but the burial

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<v Speaker 2>place was more like a modern burial ground. People there

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<v Speaker 2>were buried with the things they had in life. There

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<v Speaker 2>were adults, teenagers, and even children. The Native Americans may

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<v Speaker 2>have also believed the bog was a special place, but

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<v Speaker 2>they had a different relationship with it than ancient Europeans.

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<v Speaker 1>We may never fully know the stories of bog bodies.

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<v Speaker 1>We may never know why people found in bogs died.

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<v Speaker 1>Some may have been sacrifices, some may have been criminals,

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<v Speaker 1>some may have simply fallen in the bog and died.

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<v Speaker 1>It is also possible they were buried by the people

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<v Speaker 1>who wanted to honor them. Perhaps these were places meant

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<v Speaker 1>to preserve a record of life.

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<v Speaker 2>But whatever reason, these bodies save extremely important history. They

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<v Speaker 2>are so fresh that experts can test their DNA. We

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<v Speaker 2>can see what they ate on the day that they died.

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<v Speaker 2>We can learn a lot from these small things. We

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<v Speaker 2>can learn what the weather was like in one year.

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<v Speaker 2>We can learn what kinds of plants were growing. We

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<v Speaker 2>can even learn where these people traveled and the way

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<v Speaker 2>they interacted with their dead. We may not have writing

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<v Speaker 2>to explain their lives. We do not have their words

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<v Speaker 2>to speak about their culture. But for experts, these ancient

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<v Speaker 2>human bodies are like written records. Their study shines light

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<v Speaker 2>that allows us to see into the unknown lives of

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<v Speaker 2>the people who lived before us.

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<v Speaker 1>What do you make of these bodies? Why do you

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<v Speaker 1>think they were killed? What do you want to know

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<v Speaker 1>about their cultures? You can leave a comment on our

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<v Speaker 1>website at www dot Spotlight English dot com. You can

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<v Speaker 1>also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and egg. Yes,

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<v Speaker 1>you can also get our programs delivered directly to your

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<v Speaker 1>Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.

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<v Speaker 2>The writer and producer of this program was Dan Chrisman.

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<v Speaker 2>The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and

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<v Speaker 2>the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program

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<v Speaker 2>and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called The Mystery

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<v Speaker 2>of the Bog People.

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<v Speaker 1>We hope you can join us again for the next

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<v Speaker 1>Spotlight program. Goodbye,