Amcotts Moor Woman

Amcotts Moor Woman is the name given to a bog body discovered in 1747 in a bog near Amcotts, Lincolnshire, England, who lived sometime between A.D. 200 and 400.^[1] Although the remains themselves have largely been lost, the find is notable for the exceptional preservation of the skin and extremities at the time of discovery and for the survival of a single leather shoe associated with the body.^[2]

In the summer of 1747, a peat digger unearthed the body of a woman through roughly six feet of peat moss. The man quickly fled after his shovel struck a shoe with partial remains of a human foot still inside. Startled by the find, he fled the site. The following October, local antiquarian George Stovin of Hurst learned of the discovery and travelled to the location with assistants to recover the remains. Stovin recorded his observations in a letter to his son. Stovin concluded that the woman's body was bent so her head and feet were close to touching. Stovin described the skin of the corpse to be strong. The hands and fingernails were described as being in notably good condition, "almost like those of a living person," however, they had been lost when they were sent for study. With the body, a pair of shoes were found, one of which was damaged by the shovel of its discoverer. The sandals were said to have tawny colour and to be pliable. The bones of the woman's foot were found inside of the sandals, as the bones of the arms and thighs were found inside of the skin.^[3]

Although Stovin sent one hand and the right shoe to the Royal Society in London shortly after the excavation, both items were later lost, either through deterioration or lack of conservation. Only the left shoe survives today, preserved in the Museum of London.^[4] The original soft tissues of the body are no longer extant, and the find is now known primarily from this surviving footwear.^[5]

Based on the tightly flexed posture described by Stovin, he concluded that the individual had likely died by sinking upright into the unstable peat. Several later researchers have supported this interpretation, proposing accidental death rather than ritual killing, execution, or interpersonal violence, explanations sometimes offered for other European bog bodies.^[6] The limited preservation of the remains means that the precise circumstances of death cannot be determined.

The dating of the remains is based primarily on the associated footwear. The surviving shoe was made from a single piece of raw leather with a short heel seam and a series of lace loops around the opening. When laced, this construction caused the toe of the shoe to draw upward. Footwear of this type is characteristic of Romano-British styles of the 3rd and 4th centuries AD and corresponds to forms known from Roman provincial contexts in Britain and northern Europe. On this basis, the remains are generally dated to the late Roman period, approximately AD 200–400.^[5]

The Amcotts Moor Woman is one of the earliest recorded bog-body discoveries in Britain and provides evidence for the preservation conditions of the wetlands of the Isle of Axholme prior to their drainage. The surviving leather shoe also contributes to the study of Roman-period footwear and dress on the provincial frontier.^[7]

• List of bog bodies

• A Bog Body and its Shoes from Amcotts, Lincolnshire