Did Ancient Bog Mummies Travel Through Supernatural Portals?

Tollund Man, who was hanged with a leather cord and cast into a Danish bog, is housed at Denmark's Silkeborg Museum. PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT CLARK, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Tollund Man, who was hanged with a leather cord and cast into a Danish bog, is housed at Denmark’s Silkeborg Museum. PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT CLARK, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

For Europeans dating as far back as the Neolithic period 6,000 years ago, bogs were both resources and possibly ominous supernatural portals, according to Ulla Mannering, an expert in ancient textiles at the National Museum of Denmark.

Over 500 Iron Age bog bodies and skeletons dating to between 800 B.C. and A.D. 200 have been discovered in Denmark alone, with more unearthed in Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

The First-Ever Expedition to Darvaza Crater: Turkmenistan’s “Door to Hell”

Turmenistan's Davaza Crater - ©CAROLYN DRAKE, PANOS
Turmenistan’s Darvaza Crater – ©CAROLYN DRAKE, PANOS

Turkmenistan’s Darvaza Crater—created more than 40 years ago when the ground under a Soviet drilling rig gave way—has been burning for decades. One man went in to explore the molten “Door To Hell”.