The woman ignored him and continued to prod at the lump of material. ‘There seems to be a tough dark layer on top, almost like a skin.’

‘Well, sheep have skin, don’t they?’

Instead of answering, Louise took a pair of tweezers from her bag and picked something from the bottom end of the peat core, from where she had taken the white substance. She held it up towards her reluctant assistant.

‘But sheep don’t have bits of twine on them, do they!’

Geraint looked at her blankly. ‘What are you trying to say?’

Louise took one of her small bottles from the haversack and carefully slid the white material inside, together with an inch of what appeared to be frayed cord.

‘I think there may be a human body under there!’

The young man looked at her as if she had suddenly gone off her head. ‘Why on earth d’you say that? Far more likely to be a sheep — if in fact it is animal tissue and not some fungus or something.’

‘Nonsense! I’ve been reading about these bog bodies they’ve been finding in Denmark recently. This could be one of those.’

Geraint Williams showed that he was not so ignorant as he appeared.

‘You mean like that Tollund Man they found a few years ago. But they were prehistoric, surely?’

‘Well, Iron Age anyway,’ she replied, excitement breaking through her usual cool nature. ‘It would be great if this was another one! I’d get my doctorate just for being famous!’

‘Much more likely to be a sheep,’ muttered her student. ‘Why should it be an ancient corpse?’

Louise held up her jar for a closer look. ‘That skin has gone dark, just like the Danish people described. It’s due to staining from the tannins in the peat.’

‘And what about that bit of cord? What’s that got to do with it?’ persisted Geraint, a Jonah determined to bring her down to earth.

‘That’s what made me think of it,’ she snapped. ‘Some of these bog bodies were found with cords around their necks, probably ritual strangulation.’