Bog Mummies: Preserved in Peat #30
Charlotte Wilcox

Wilcox, Charlotte. (2003). Bog mummies: Preserved in peat. Mankato: Capstone.

Awards: Science Trade Book

Grade Level: 3-6

Genre: Informational

Standards: Science As Inquiry (History and Nature of Science, Anthropology, Archaeology, and Paleontology)

Author’s Credibility: Credits were given to National Museum of Denmark, Silkeborg Museum, Denmark, Hulton Archive by Getty Images and others.

Access Features: Contents, index, words to know, places of interests, Internet sites, map sidebars, and suggested books.

Summary: Describes how bog mummies are found and how they are preserved. Most of the mummies have been found in Europe, Denmark, and Germany. Scientists believe peat and sphagnum moss have helped slow down the decaying of the bodies. The hands were the most preserved part of the body. Scientists also believe most bog mummies were victims of human sacrifice.

Illustrations: Photographs

Text: Descriptive

Use: This book is not appropriate for my second grade students, but I would use it as a resource when we do our dinosaur digs.

Response: These bog mummies have been buried for thousands of years. It is amazing how the bodies are still intact. It was an interesting book. Some of the photographs were a little too vivid for me, but you know that’s what kids like. That “gross stuff”. It reminded me of the Pompeii book.

Science Processes: Observing, classifying, inferring, experimenting, predicting, measuring

Related Books:

Bog Bodies, Janet Buell
Bodies From the Bog, James Deem
Mummies, Bones, and Body Parts, Charlotte Wilcox