| Iron Age 'David Beckham' unmasked | ||
Scientists at Dundee University have helped to recreate the face of a man dubbed
the Iron Age David Beckham because of evidence he gelled his hair. Clonycavan Man, named after the area he was found, was one of two bodies discovered in a peat bog in the Republic of Ireland in 2003. The chemical composition of the peat mummified the body, enabling scientists to recreate his face. The Timewatch programme on BBC Two on Friday will investigate the find. The first body dropped off a peat cutting machine in February 2003 in Clonycavan, near Dublin. The forearms, hands and lower abdomen were missing, believed to have been hacked off by the machine. The second was found in May the same year in Croghan, about 25 miles from Clonycavan. The bodies, which had been tied down, tortured and were probably slain in a ritual sacrifice. Research indicated they lived about 2,300 years ago. Glass eyes Clonycavan Man has been recreated with slicked back, gelled hair and striking good looks. The chemical composition of the peat bog mummifies bodies in such a way that the skeleton deteriorates but the skin is preserved.
Forensic anthropologists and forensic artists at Dundee University used a state of the art computer system to recreate the facial appearance of the Iron Age man and then add glass eyes, skin tone and hair. The head has been constructed from the crushed skull and soft tissue of the bog body. It appears the man used a type of Iron Age hair gel - vegetable oil mixed
with resin - perhaps to give the impression of height as he was only 5ft 2in tall. Forensic evidence was recovered from every part of the bodies. 'Brutal time' The contents of their stomachs told of their last meal, the chemicals in their hair enabled an understanding of their diet and their skeletons offered clues about their age. Scientists in Wales, Ireland and Denmark also took part in the face reconstruction. Timewatch producer John Hayes-Fisher said: "This is enormously significant in terms of European archaeology, as bog bodies are so
terribly rare. "What really shocked me while making the programme, though, was discovering the unnecessary violence with which some of these young men were killed. The Iron Age really was quite a brutal time." Timewatch: The Bog Bodies will be shown on BBC Two at 2100 GMT on Friday, 20 January. | ||
(2) Hair-gelled Celt may have been sacrificed
LAURA ROBERTS
THE hair-gelled head of an ancient Celt, dubbed the Iron Age Beckham because of his slicked-back look, has been reconstructed by Scots scientists.
Examinations of the Clonycavan man, found fully preserved in a peat bog in Ireland, revealed he used a gel made from a mixture of plant oil and pine resin, believed to be from south-west France or Spain, on his hair.
Experts recreated the head of the Iron Age man.
The discovery
has been held up as the first evidence of the trade of luxury goods between Ireland and Southern Europe 2,500 years ago.
Archaeologists suggest the gel may have been applied in an attempt to increase the man's diminutive stature - he was only 5ft 2in tall.
Now a team of scientists at the University of Dundee has reconstructed the Iron Age face from the man's preserved remains, and Dr Caroline Wilkinson, a forensic anthropologist, said that the discovery of the primitive hair product was one of the more "surprising" finds of the project.
"He has quite a forward-facing profile and not a very strong chin, but I don't think he'd look all that different to the faces you see today," she said.
The
forensic scientists were in an unusual position when reconstructing the man's facial features because his skull had dissolved due to the acidic chemical composition of the peat bog where he was found.
This meant they had to create a human face by "reinflating" the squashed but preserved soft tissue of Clonycavan man, named after the area where he was found.
Caroline Needham, a forensic artist who added skin tone, glass eyes and hair to a clay model depicting the man's likely appearance, said: "Because we did not have a skeletal structure to work from, we had to work from soft tissue which was very squashed. Fortunately there was some jawbone that we could work from.
"Not having a skull to work from means it is difficult to pin down
things like nose width, but when drawing on the features we consulted the archaeologists about what they wanted.
"We made his skin weathered as he would have been outdoors a lot."
Archaeologists believe that Clonycavan man was an aristocrat who may have been part of a ritualistic sacrifice. The mummified corpse had signs of violent blows to the back of the head.
Ned Kelly, the head of antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland, said: "My belief is that these burials are offerings to the gods of fertility by kings to ensure a successful reign."
The body was found by a farmer operating a peat-cutting machine in 2003 in Clonycavan, near Dublin. The man
had been so well preserved that detectives originally thought he was a victim of an IRA murder from the 1970s.
It is now thought that he lived between 392 and 201BC. Since being found, the body has been preserved in wet peat and exposed for only two days at a time. More than 350 "bog bodies" have been found in Northern Europe, although fleshed remains are extremely rare.
• The story of Clonycavan man will be told on the BBC Two programme Timewatch at 9pm tomorrow.
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