A recent discovery in Scotland is bringing to light some very odd rituals that were practiced 3000 years ago in the region. Some bodies were found more than a decade ago that few people thought anything about. They were preserved by a peat bog and reburied, to be discovered by archaeologists in our modern times. This practice isn’t too unusual for the time, but what is strange is the fact that these two bodies were composed of parts from six different people.
Some scientists thought the bodies looked a little odd to begin with, but DNA testing finally confirmed it. There was one male and one female body, assembled from spare parts. Further, the testing showed that none of the parts on the bodies were related by birth. They appeared to have been placed in a peat bog to preserve them and then removed. The skeletons that were found were reburied even later in the timeline. It appeared to be some ritual that took place over several centuries.
But this is where it gets really bizarre. While the female skeleton was assembled with its various parts all at the same time, the male skeleton was made from parts that differed in age of preservation by hundreds of years.
Theories about what actually happened are purely speculative at the time. Some suggest that there were pieces missing from the original bodies and they were replaced to make the bodies whole - a practice that has been noted elsewhere in the world. Others suggest that the act was symbolic in one way, linking many different people together in one form to create a common ancestor of sorts. Either way, these appear to be the earliest known Frankenstein’s monsters.
Scientists believe that there will be other examples of this practice to be found. They think that by scouring the same region they may find more or that by looking back at bog bodies already found they may notice something previously overlooked. They seek to confirm that further instances of this event did take place and to pin down a time frame for this rather peculiar practice.