http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120706-bog-mummies-body-parts-frankenstein-ancient-science/
The above person is constituted of skeletal elements from SEVERAL different individuals, rearticulated! According to the article, the individuals were placed in a bog after death and then removed before the acids of the bog could break down calcium in the bone. So that gets us to the big question: Why go to such elaborate measures to articulate PARTS of different individuals together?
The article mentions a couple of theories. A practical approach: perhaps bodies were incomplete and needed additional parts. I can imagine fishing a rotting corpse out of a bog might not be as easy as it sounds, so logically some parts of the body may become disarticulated and lost.
An alternative suggestion proposes meaningful combination of individuals with different ancestries in order to create a mega-ancestor. This reminds me of Power Rangers megazord. A composite giant robot, which was inevitably required in each episode when the villain eventually becomes enormous (why both the villain and power rangers never just went "big" at the beginning of a battle is beyond me, but I digress). It makes sense that this would add meaning, but it may also be difficult to even determine who's who by the time bodies were recovered.
If we look at Egyptian mummies with missing limbs, "prostheses" are often added in a similar manner, though not usually from the body parts of other individuals. In my opinion, many of the prosthetics which take the form of a stick, some rocks, or mudplaster are an easy fix for the embalmers who made some hilarious mistakes during the embalming process which unfortunately are preserved to this day (for example: http://www.bikyamasr.com/44849/ancient-egypt-heads-to-brisbane/). However, other prosthetics like toes (http://www.livescience.com/4555-world-prosthetic-egyptian-mummy-fake-toe.html) show the Egyptians too desired to have a complete body for the afterlife. So Egyptian data would favor the former proposition, though we will have to wait and see what new data emerges from this fascinating case of a Frankenstein burial! Regardless, these are some pretty crazy burial traditions!
The above person is constituted of skeletal elements from SEVERAL different individuals, rearticulated! According to the article, the individuals were placed in a bog after death and then removed before the acids of the bog could break down calcium in the bone. So that gets us to the big question: Why go to such elaborate measures to articulate PARTS of different individuals together?
The article mentions a couple of theories. A practical approach: perhaps bodies were incomplete and needed additional parts. I can imagine fishing a rotting corpse out of a bog might not be as easy as it sounds, so logically some parts of the body may become disarticulated and lost.An alternative suggestion proposes meaningful combination of individuals with different ancestries in order to create a mega-ancestor. This reminds me of Power Rangers megazord. A composite giant robot, which was inevitably required in each episode when the villain eventually becomes enormous (why both the villain and power rangers never just went "big" at the beginning of a battle is beyond me, but I digress). It makes sense that this would add meaning, but it may also be difficult to even determine who's who by the time bodies were recovered.
If we look at Egyptian mummies with missing limbs, "prostheses" are often added in a similar manner, though not usually from the body parts of other individuals. In my opinion, many of the prosthetics which take the form of a stick, some rocks, or mudplaster are an easy fix for the embalmers who made some hilarious mistakes during the embalming process which unfortunately are preserved to this day (for example: http://www.bikyamasr.com/44849/ancient-egypt-heads-to-brisbane/). However, other prosthetics like toes (http://www.livescience.com/4555-world-prosthetic-egyptian-mummy-fake-toe.html) show the Egyptians too desired to have a complete body for the afterlife. So Egyptian data would favor the former proposition, though we will have to wait and see what new data emerges from this fascinating case of a Frankenstein burial! Regardless, these are some pretty crazy burial traditions!
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