Dating bog bodies by means of C-14-AMS

We have made efforts to date a substantial number of bodies from northwest European peat bogs by means of C-14. In our research, we compared materials such as skin, hair, bone, textile, leather and wood where available. Most of the bodies we investigated were found to date from the Late Iron Age/Roman period (c. 2nd century BC-4th century AD). Our data set shows that bog bodies in general can indeed be successfully dated by means of C-14 analysis. Our results contradict comments in the literature (e.g. C.S. Briggs, Did they fall or were they pushed? Some unresolved questions about bog bodies, in: R.C. Turner, R.G. Scaife (Eds.), Bog Bodies-New Discoveries and New Perspectives, British Museum Press, London, 1995, pp. 168-182) to the effect that 'peat bogs can age corpses so as to distort completely the usefulness of Radiocarbon'. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.