Lindow Woman

Lindow Woman and Lindow I are the names given to the partial remains of a female bog body, discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss, near Wilmslow in Cheshire, England, on 13 May 1983 by commercial peat-cutters. The remains were largely a skull fragment, which was missing its jaw, but with soft tissue and hair attached. The remains were subsequently dated to the Roman period.The remains became more technically known as Lindow I after the discovery of other remains in the same bog, which were identified as Lindow Man or Lindow II in 1984 and Lindow III in 1987.

Before the skull of Lindow Woman was dated, it was assumed to be the skull of Malika de Fernandez.Her husband, Peter Reyn-Bardt, had been under suspicion of murdering her, but no body had been found.He confessed to the crime as a result of the skull's discovery and was convicted as a result of his confession.

The bog body of Lindow I was discovered on 13 May 1983 by commercial peat cutters, Andy Mould and Stephen Dooley. They first noticed an unusual item on the conveyor belt, which was similar in shape and size to a football. They took the object from the conveyor to examine it more closely. After they removed the adhesive remains of peat, they realized they'd found the incomplete preserved human head with attached remnants of soft tissue, brain, eye, optic nerve, and hair.

The police were summoned to deal with the remains, and suspected a crime. They launched a murder investigation. For over two decades, a local 57-year-old man Peter Reyn-Bardt, had been under suspicion of murdering his estranged wife, Malika de Fernandez, and of disposing of her body.

When questioned, Reyn-Bardt assumed that the skull fragment came from his wife's body, saying, "It has been so long I thought I would never be found out." Afterward, he made a full confession about how he had killed De Fernandez in June 1961. She had returned home, found that he was sharing the premises with another man, and attempted to extort Reyn-Bardt in return for not revealing his homosexuality (still criminalized under British law at the time). Reyn-Bardt subsequently dismembered De Fernandez's body and buried the pieces in the bog. Reyn-Bardt was set for trial before Chester Crown Court in December 1983.

However, Detective Inspector George Abbott also sent the head to Oxford University for further study. Carbon-14 dating of the skull fragment returned a date of 1740 ± 80BP (c. 250 AD), suggesting that it dated back to Roman Britain. After this was revealed, Reyn-Bardt tried to revoke his confession, but he was still convicted of his wife's murder even though no trace of her own body was found.

Today, only the bony remains of the skull from the discovery exist because of the handling of evidence by the police. The remains of the skull were anthropologically identified as probably belonging to a 30–50-year-old woman. Recent studies have suggested doubt about the sex of the individual.

Another body was recovered in the area in 1987, and is referred to as Lindow III. It was headless and has a vestigial thumb.Some scientists believe that this was the body of the Lindow Woman. A theory described the killings of both Lindow I and II as ritual sacrifice attributed to the Celtic enclaves.

Chemistry of Bog Bodies

The preservation of bog bodies is dependent on a set of specific chemical conditions, which can occur in peat bogs. A sphagnum moss bog must have a temperature lower than 4°C at the time of the deposition of the body. The subsequent average annual temperature must be lower than 10°C. Moisture must be stable in the bog year-round: it cannot dry out.

Sphagnum moss affects the chemistry of nearby water, which becomes highly acidic relative to a more natural environment (a pH of roughly 3.3 to 4.5). The concentration of dissolved minerals also tends to be low. Dying moss forms layers of sediment and releases sugars and humic acids that consume oxygen. Since the surface of the water is covered by living moss, water becomes anaerobic. As a result, human tissues buried in the bog tend to tan rather than decaying.