Yde Girl

1992 Reconstruction of Yde Girl's Facial Features by Richard Neave

Bog mummies are popular and easily generate interest and revenue through the touring circuits. This particular example, the Yde Girl, may be the best know and most popular, sharing interest with Denmark's Tollund Man and England's Lindow Man. In 1897 peat cutters in Bourtangermoor [Netherlands] discovered her remains. Ignorant and superstitious laborers, frightened by her red hair [devil implications] moved some of her remains to another location where they were discovered and collected by the local mayor who was an amateur scientist. Who was she and what happened to her? Carbon 14 has dated her to be about 2,000 years old [1 AD]. She died a violent death at the young age of 16 [based on CT scans revealing the lack of wisdom teeth] by strangulation [from a waistband wrapped three times around her neck] and one stab wound to the neck. A misfit in the community? Maybe. The CT scan also revealed scoliosis [curvature of the spine] and one foot was swollen [walked with a limp]. Half of her red hair was missing--evil spirit? Slowly science peals away mysteries and offers the cold data of forensics but yields little to the soul and spirit. It is a tribute to her that Richard Neave has given her relevance as a human through his reconstruction.


An audio presentation:

The life and death of the 1st century girl from Yde


Lindow Man


The Mummy Congress - Science, Obsession, and the everlasting dead

by

Heather Pringle

ISBN 0-7868-6551-2