By Christine Mc Cafferty

With very little money in their wallets， Shannon and Christine set off from Galway in the direction of the capital of the Republic of Ireland， Dublin. They had three goals to achieve： cross the River Shannon2， visit Seans bar （believed to be the oldest pub in Europe） and find a job in Dublin.

So off we went… just outside of Galway we got picked up almost immediately by a very sweet and friendly truck driver， John. This was typical of the Irish； the friendliest and most helpful people Id ever met. We told him our three goals. He said he could help us achieve two of them that day， the River Shannon and Seans Bar， and get us to Dublin the next… and then he added a new goal to our list： visit a peat factory：3 sure， theres a goal！ We knew nothing about “peat” but were up for the adventure！

He was heading east and within an hour we crossed the River Shannon in the village of Shannon bridge. Shannon was thrilled. Her mothers family was from Ireland and she had always wanted to see the river she was named after. John stopped the truck and Shannon ran out and managed to get her hands wet in the river. She was incredibly pleased with herself！

Our truck driver carted peat briquettes around the country and was heading back to the factory where they are cut from the peat and made， near Croghan Hill in County Offaly， an area often referred to as the navel of Ireland.4 John eagerly gave us a tour of the factory. It was very interesting and， for what its worth， I now know how peat briquettes are made！

But what is peat？ Peat is made up of thousands of years of partially decayed trees， mosses， heather， pollen， dust and such like that build up in wet soggy layers in what is known as a peat bog.5 After World War II， there was not enough coal in Ireland to burn for people to keep warm. They therefore started to use the peat for fuel and power generation6. It was cut， left to dry and then compressed7 into briquettes. First the job was done by hand and then in factories.

Far more interesting is what has been found in the peat. The first signs of human habitation in County Offaly go as far back as 6800—6000 BC. Stone axes， arrow heads and blades from this time period have been found in the peat bogs. The biggest stash of ancient artefacts found is from the Bronze Age，8 about 3000 years later. Known as the Dowris Hoard， it consists of bronze spearheads， axes， trumpets， a special kind of Irish bell and buckets—one of which was imported from elsewhere in Europe， showing that even back then the people were trading across the seas.9

In contrast to the kind and friendly Irish people we were meeting， were the mutilated10 and murdered bodies found in the bogs. Near to the peat factory is a place of significance throughout Irish history： Croghan Hill. There is a mound at the very top of the hill which is believed to be a Bronze Age burial site.11 It is near this hill that an important bog body was found—the headless torso of a man who seemingly had been tortured and then killed.12 He has been named Old Croghan Man by scientists. He was from the Iron Age13 and died in the centuries around 200 BC. His well-preserved hands reveal well-cared-for fingernails， showing that he had done very little physical labour in his life. He was 1.98 m tall， which is incredibly tall for a man of those times. Possibly he was a nobleman， or even a king， especially given that he was buried at Croghan Hill which was where rituals for choosing and crowning new kings took place.14

Disturbingly， it appears that the deep cuts under his nipples， something that was often done to indicate that a man was not worthy of being a king， were made while he was still alive.15 Holes were cut through his upper arms and a rope put through them in order to tie him. It appears he was killed by stabbing. Next， his head was cut off and his body cut in half. It must have been a brutal world！

There have been over 100 ancient bodies found in the bogs， many of them the victims of murder—and sometimes their bodies were mutilated in different ways. There is much conjecture16 over why some of them might have been killed. Maybe they were killed to appease17 pre-Christian gods， following bad luck. When people fell onto bad times， they often blamed the king too. If Old Croghan Man was a king， he might have been killed by his own people. Otherwise he might have been killed in a battle for leadership.

The bodies are well preserved because of the incredible properties18 of the peat. Even in modern times， mothers often put peat on a childs wound because of its healing power， and it is even being used in anti-aging beauty products and to treat everything from acne to AIDS symptoms.19

Modern scientific methods have helped us find out a great deal about the lives of the ancient bog bodies. But much of it remains a mystery—and it is all still educated guesses20. We added a new goal to our wish list， come face-to-face with a dead man from ancient times！ The National Museum in Dublin， where we were headed， was the place to do it we were told.

Next we turned back in the direction we had come and headed west again with our trucker John to Athlone21. Athlone is on the River Shannon； a beautiful spot. After watching peat briquettes falling from a conveyor belt22 and learning about tortured victims all day， we were keen for something more light-hearted and headed to find Seans Bar.

The bar dates back to AD 900 and is regarded as Irelands oldest bar. Records have been kept of every owner since those times. Ancient coins were found during renovations23. Many believe it to be the longest-running bar in Europe. The people in the little bar were jovial and fun， even in the afternoon（！）， and we had something else to tick off our list.24

We continued on our trucking journey with John. It was getting late and he insisted we go back to his home in the town of Clara for the night； in fact hed been talking about it， and a party “we” were all invited to， all day. It didnt take much to convince us. Once there， his wife and children greeted us with excitement and joy. We all sat in the lounge while they sang and played musical instruments for us. What a lovely family. It was almost overwhelming25.

They took us along to the birthday party nearby. There was raucous26 country-style dancing to Irish folk music until the party was broken up by the police at 2am and everyone sent home. We chatted late and only got to bed at about 4am， but were up only a few hours later to head off with John to Dublin.

Off we went. Ireland is pretty small so crossing it does not take more than three hours， even by truck. Just as well because we sure were crisscrossing and going to and fro on our journey.27 John took us by peat delivery truck over OConnell Bridge in the heart of Dublin， passed the famous Trinity College28 and dropped us off at the National Museum of Ireland. We decided that seeing dead bodies had to be done before finding a job… probably because we knew wed have more success at the former than the latter. We had hardly spent a penny of our last few pounds； how lucky we were that the beautiful people of Ireland had been so kind.

Read next month when Shannon and Christine come face to face with bog bodies， fresh Guinness beer （the most famous drink in Dublin） and try to find a job. Will they finally get work and money rolling in the pockets？

1. bog： 泥塘，沼澤。

2. Shannon River： 香儂河，愛爾蘭最長的河流。

3. Seans Bar： 肖恩酒吧，《吉尼斯世界紀錄大全》記載的愛爾蘭最古老的酒吧；peat： 泥炭，泥煤。

4. 送我們的這位卡車司機平時開車在全國運送泥炭餅，現(xiàn)在要回到分離、制作泥炭餅的工廠去，工廠在奧法利郡的克羅根山附近，那里常被人們稱為愛爾蘭的中心。cart： 用車運送；briquette： 煤球，煤餅；Croghan Hill： 克羅根山，位于愛爾蘭中部的艾倫沼澤上，是一個石炭紀死火山遺跡；navel： 肚臍。

5. 構(gòu)成泥炭的是一些累積了幾千年的物質(zhì)，包括部分腐爛的樹木、苔蘚、石南植物、花粉、塵土等等，而這些物質(zhì)也是泥炭沼澤中潮濕層的組成部分。heather：石南屬植物；pollen： 花粉；soggy： 潮濕的，沉悶的；peat bog： 泥炭沼澤，指土壤剖面發(fā)育有泥炭層的沼澤。

6. power generation： 發(fā)電。

7. compress： 壓縮。

8. stash： 儲藏處；artefact： 人工制品，加工品；Bronze Age： 青銅時代，在考古學上以使用青銅器為標志的人類文明發(fā)展的一個階段，在歐洲約為公元前3200—前600年。

9. 這里名為道里斯堆（Dowris Hoard），包括銅矛、斧頭、小號、一種獨特的愛爾蘭鈴鐺和木桶，其中有一個是從歐洲其他地方進口的，說明那時候人們就已經(jīng)有跨海貿(mào)易了。Dowris Hoard： 銅器時代一處重要的寶藏，因在愛爾蘭奧法利郡道里斯地區(qū)發(fā)現(xiàn)而得名，hoard意為“貯藏物，囤積物”；spearhead：矛；trumpet： 小號。

10. mutilate： 使（肢體）殘缺。

11. mound： 土石堆，土丘；burial site： 墓地。

12. bog body： [考古學] 泥炭沼人（在泥炭沼澤里自然形成的木乃伊）；torso： 人體軀干。

13. Iron Age： 鐵器時代，繼青銅時代之后的人類社會發(fā)展時代。大約從公元前1000年開始，歐洲各國逐漸進入鐵器時代。

14. ritual： 儀式；crown： 為……加冕。

15. 非常令人不安的是，在他乳頭下面有一些很深的傷口，看起來是在他活著的時候造成的，這通常是說明這個人沒有資格成為國王。disturbingly： 令人不安地。

16. conjecture： 猜測。

17. appease： 平息，使……安靜。

18. property： 性能，功效。

19. 哪怕是在近代，母親們也會把泥炭敷在孩子的傷口上面，因為泥炭有治愈的功效，它甚至被用在抗衰老美容產(chǎn)品當中，還用來治療包括粉刺和艾滋病在內(nèi)的各種疾病。acne： 粉刺，痤瘡。

20. educated guess： 有根據(jù)的猜測。

21. Athlone： 阿斯隆，愛爾蘭一城市。

22. conveyor belt： 傳送帶。

23. renovation： 翻新，重修。

24. jovial： 愉快的，快樂的；tick off： 用記號標出，從（列表中）勾掉。

25. overwhelming： （感情）強烈的，無法抗拒的。

26. raucous： // 混亂的，鬧哄哄的。

27. criss-cross： 交叉往返；to and fro： 往返地，來回地。

28. Trinity College： 都柏林圣三一學院，愛爾蘭最古老的大學。