Clonycavan Man is the nickname under which a well-preserved bog body found in Clonycavan (County Meath) is known, the partial torso, arms, and (most important) head are now on display in the National Museum of Ireland. What remains of it is in a good overall level of preservation, albeit flattened. It was found in a modern peat harvesting machine, which means that the lower part of its body was more than ground up and used for fuel.
Clonycavan Man
When the find became known in 2003, Ireland’s police force, the Garda Siochana, immediately swooped in. You may be wondering why, since the swampy bodies of centuries ago are not exactly unheard of. On the other hand, the disposition of victims of violent crime in the swamps of Ireland is not exactly unknown either. Even a shallow grave will suffice, as in the middle of nowhere no one can smell your decay.
And then there is the problem of the “Disappeared” from Ireland. The paramilitaries (like the IRA) developed the terror tactic of making people simply disappear without a trace. Almost twenty men and women were victims of (alleged) kidnapping and murder. Some are still missing today, with several recent finds in the swamps, making a police investigation into the remains unearthed in the swamps a high priority.
Gardai investigating the body in fact concluded that the Clonycavan Man had been killed. His skull was split open by a sharp implement, causing a deep wound to the top of his head and catastrophic brain damage. However, through radiocarbon dating, his death was approximately 392 BC. C. and 201 a. C., so no witnesses or suspects were sought.
Half the man I used to be
The remains found at Clonycavan are not the most spectacular swamp body you can imagine. There are better examples, and with half the body missing, the murder victim was not exactly a prime example.
But Clonycavan Man quickly became iconic through a fashion statement: a Mohawk-like hairstyle, raised with the help of vegetable oil and pine resin, a styling gel most likely imported from southwestern France or Spain. This early, primitive and effective hair gel (the style stayed 2,300 years old, after all) points to the Clonycavan Man being rich. Otherwise, who could afford that luxury?
Was the hairstyle normal? Maybe, maybe not, we just don’t know enough about the specific period of history to make a decision here. However, it has been said that the shiny hairstyle could have been an attempt at compensation. After all, Clonycavan Man would only have been around five feet two inches tall (not exactly the tallest tree in the forest).
Why was the Clonycavan man killed?
In the absence of concrete evidence, we have to speculate a bit and draw inspiration from what we know about the Irish and Celtic world at the time. And that points us to a theory of his death that is not a cold-blooded murder, but a (possibly) religious ceremony.
The main indicator of this is the actual form of the Clonycavan Man disappearance – this was not a tapping with a teenager high in fly agaric who took a random victim from his cart. Far from it: the victim received blows no less than to the head, also once to the chest, and received another blow to the nose. All injuries may have been caused by the same weapon. After his death (at least that is expected), Clonycavan Man was also gutted and had his entrails removed. Then the body was buried in the swamp, which was often a sign for a ceremony.
From this evidence, it has been widely suggested that the Clonycavan Man was the local nobleman, ritually (and presumably more or less willingly) sacrificed to ensure the prosperity of his tribe. Since he was in his early twenties, it would have been a great sacrifice.
Then again, he could have been mugged by someone with an eye on his hair gel – well, not really (since death is too elaborate for a heist), but other theories certainly can’t be ruled out. Clonycavan Man will be silent about all of this, but he could also have been a rival chieftain executed by an extremely troublesome tribe. Or a nobleman who simply broke the law one more time and was executed for this.
