Bog Bodies

Jo Andrews’s Haptic & Hue podcast, now in its seventh season, is a gift that keeps giving.

A recent episode hit me right in one of my mini-obsessions: Egtved Girl, a 3,000-year-old body found in a well-preserved oak coffin buried in a mound in Denmark. My fascination is not so much with the teenager herself, who was laid to rest with ceremony and care, but her Bronze Age clothing.

In The Mysteries of the Marshes: The Ancient Textile Secrets of Europe’s Bog Bodies, Jo Andrews talks with Danish experts on ancient textiles, Ulla Mannering and Ida Demant, who discuss Egtved Girl and another archaeological find: Huldremose Woman.

Their clothing is incredible. Learning about it reinforces my reverence for the resourcefulness of our ancient foremothers, and amazes me with its quality and yes, style.

Egtved Girl wore a swingy string mini skirt and a close-fitting shirt whose economy of design is familiar to anyone who’s made a box top or gotten one from J. Jill or Eileen Fisher. Huldremose Woman, who was of mature years, dressed elegantly and practically in a woven checked skirt, shawl, and two pieced lambskin capes. The woolen pieces had been dyed yellow, blue, and red at various times in their long useful lives.

Both finds challenge the image of primitive humans eking out a forlorn existence clad in rags—these two women had swag. Their clothes were well and beautifully made, with marks of being cherished and carefully maintained.

Jo shares some images to get us started here, and recommends visiting the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen to see them in person. One more for the textile lover’s bucket list!

More boggy eye candy can be found in Bog Fashion: Recreating Bronze and Iron Age Clothes by Nicole DeRushie, whose Instagram documentation of her meticulous recreations of these pieces is stunning. She spins her own thread and sews with a bone needle. Seeing her model the clothes brings them vividly to life.

Image of Huldremose Woman’s outfit: National Museum of Denmark