Bogman: because I'm worth it

By Hayley Birch

What links David Beckham, Mr. T and an Irish bog man? Give up? The answer: all have sported rather fashionable mohawks at some point. And the similarities don't stop there... Becks, who famously endorsed Brylcreem, may have more in common with a 2,300 year old corpse than he might think.

Yes, Clonycavan Man, dug up in an Irish town of the same name, styled his barnet using hair gel. Imagine some poor soul's horror, when, innocently peat-cutting away, as you do, he or she stumbled upon the dead man, perfectly preserved by the peat and with a punk hairdo to boot.

Clonycavan Man's taste in hair products seems curiously exotic. He was clearly not a fan of whatever your average Iron Age stylist was supplying, because this particular brand was imported, maybe from as far away as Spain. Surely a hell of a way back then just to beat off bed hair. Still, it gives us a surprising insight into Iron Age trading habits. These days you can find him and his decapitated mate, Oldcroghan Man, along with his beautifully manicured nails, at the National Museum of Ireland.

The scars born by many bog bodies have indicated torture and violent death, not least poor Olcroghan Man, who was apparently lucky to still be in possession of his nipples. It isn't known exactly how or why these men met their sticky ends in the peat, although Eamonn Kelly of the Museum suspects that because, like other bog men, they were buried on the borders of royal land, they may have been candidates for kings, or even deposed kings.

Other celebrities of the bog world include the Scandinavian Tollundman and English Lindow Man, both found with hair, tattoos and stomach contents, rather delightfully, still in place. The reason for this spooky phenomenon is the anaerobic environment created by the peat. One way or another, plenty of bog men have been brought to the surface in the past. However, only recently have archaeologists learned how to keep them preserved. So good news for Clonycavan Man and his precious Mohawk.

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