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Paper short abstract

The talk explores ongoing PhD research centred around the 'bog body phenomenon' which takes place at the intersections of archaeology, environmental humanities, critical plant studies, vegetal ontology and more-than-human/posthumanism.

Paper long abstract

Bog body research in archaeology examines human remains found in the bogs, fens and peatlands of (mostly) north-western Europe. Current narratives have been shaped, and continue to be perpetuated, through the largely anthropocentric lens that archaeology as a discipline is often characterised by. Where the phenomenon has had a distinct focus on the human and on the body in general, the bog has, conversely, often been discussed as a largely passive and backgrounded entity, upon which human life and death has unfurled.

And yet, peatlands are rich, diverse and vital ecosystems, covering just 3% of the world’s surface, but holding twice as much carbon as all of the world’s forests. When 25% of Europe’s peatlands are now understood as degraded, rising up to 50% within the boundaries of the EU proper, it is clear that the anthropocentric way we have enacted our current human/bog relations has proven to be problematic in myriad ways.

Exploring the ‘bog body phenomenon’ at the intersections of archaeology, environmental humanities, critical plant studies, vegetal ontology and more-than-human/posthumanism, this talk will discuss ongoing PhD research which engages with the possibility of a more-than-human bog body research, expanding on research influences from human-soil relations, environmental humanities, indigenous archaeologies, and a decentering of euro-western perspectives.

I will discuss the possibilities of what this PhD research calls a 'critical peat/bog studies', advocating for thinking-with peat and moss, embracing multivalence and ambiguity, and the possibilities of a bog body research that allows for a multivocality, of human and nonhuman voices.