THE BODY
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When, Where, How the Body was Found
Lindow Man, also Known as Pete Marsh, was discovered North West of England in August 1984. Workmen were cutting peat at Lindow Moss bog, a raised mire peat bog in Wilmslow in Cheshire, England that was formed in a collection of hollows left by melting ice. Originally to be thought of pieces of wood stuck up above the bog peat, after further examination, it turned out to be the corpse of a dead body (first assumed as a women - then identified as a man from the beard sideburns and mustache). |
Lindow Moss Bog, Wilmslow in cheshire, England
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How Lindow Man may have looked like
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A Description of the Body As It Is Today
Lindow Man is Britain's best known and preserved Iron Age bog body. He was approximately 25 years of age when he died and was estimated to be between 1.68 - 1.73 meters tall. It was found that Lindow Man's hair and body was preserved by the bog and experts found that had died between 2 BC and AD 119. His fingers were well manicured signifying how he had done minimal hard manual work and weighed around 60-65kg. Pete Marsh was deemed to be rather healthy with only slight osteoarthritis and detestation of parasitic worms.
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Personal Details and Cause of Death
The cause and reason of death of Lindow Man have been debated with several scholars. Personal details includes:
After much debate and analysis, it was been revealed that Lindow Man was killed by the the hand of humans, with no total exact amount of how many people involved in the murder process of Lindow Man from the evidence of being bashed on the head twice by a very heavy object (presumably axe or hard piece of wood), blows on the ribs (estimated to be a person's knees), and strangled to death by a cord in the hands of a human, along with broken neck and throat cut, with body later dumped into peat bog, faced down. Scientists presumed all these harm and actions that occurred to the body could not have been by the actions of any other circumstances other than humans, and suicide could not have been possible with the breakage of the throat after death. Scientists have been fairly certain that the reason of Lindow Man's death was no other than ritual sacrifice to the Gods by Druid - with Lindow Man being a man of fairly good health and body shape to be a worker that died of starvation or other diseases. The horrific way Lindow Man passed away strongly suggests this cause (the ceremonial ‘Triple Death’ sacrifice way), along with the mistletoe drink in his stomach which was sacred to the Druids, and it is mentioned that Druids carried out human sacrifices to the Gods. People have also reasoned and mentioned Lindow Man's body is contemporary along with the Claudian Roman invasion of Britain into England, with further leads to the conclusion that he was chosen to die in order to please the Gods and protect the community from attack. Reasons such as being sacrificed to the Gods for a good harvest and a calm winter were also mentioned as reasons for the ritual sacrifice. Also, with the way the body was placed face down in the peat bog, unlike the standard criteria for burial, further proves highlights that the body was a form of ritual sacrifice. However, despite all the evidence and knowledge placed into concluding Lindow Man was of ritual sacrifice, there are still many beliefs and enforcement that Lindow Man was simply a murder victim 'clubbed to death', along with reasoning the cord around Lindow Man's neck was simply a decorative necklace. |
Lindow Man on display at the British Museum in June 2010
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How the Body Was Preserved Over Time
Lindow Man was preserved over time by the acidic, oxygen-free conditions held by the peat bog which meant that the man's skin, hair and many of his internal organs were extremely well preserved. Since the discovery of the body, Lindow Man has been submerged in a mixture of polythene glycol to prevent him shrinking, wrapped in cling firm and freeze-dried.
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