"The Tollund Man" lay 50 meters out from firm gound and had been covered by about 2 meters of peat, now dug away. On his head he wore a pointed skin cap fastened securely under the chin by a hide thong. Around his waist, there was a smooth hide belt. Otherwise he was naked. His hair was cropped so short as to be almost entirely hidden by his cap. He was clean-shaven but there was very short stubble on the chin and upper lip. Underneath a small lump of peat beside his head, there was a rope, made of two leather thongs twisted together. It was drawn tight around his neck and throat and then coiled like a snake over his shoulder and down across his back.
Underneath the body was a thin layer of moss. Scientists knew that this was formed in Danish peat bogs in the early Iron Age, about the time when Christ was born. The body must, therefore, have been put in the hole in the past roughly 2,000 years ago in the early Iron Age. The acid in the peat had prevented the body from decaying. It looked as if it had been recently buried.
Examination and X-rays showed that the man's head was undamaged, and his heart, lungs and liver were also well preserved. He was not an old man thogh he must have been over 20 years old because his wisdom teeth had grown. He had therefore probably been killed by the rope around his neck. The noose had left clear marks on the skin under the chin and at the side of his neck but there was no mark at the back of the neck where the knot was. It was impossible to tell if the neck had been broken because the bones were very crumbly.
The stomach and intestines were examined and tests were carried out on three contents. The scientists discovered that the man's last meal had been a kind of soup made from vegetables and seeds, come cultivated and some wild, such as barely, linseed, 'gold of pleasure', knotweed, bristlegrass, and camomile.
There were no traces of meat and from the stage of digestion it was obvious that the man had lived for 12-24 hours after this meal. In other words, he had not eaten for a day before his death. Although such a vegetable soup was not unusual for people of this time, two interesting things were noted:
1. The soup contained many different kinds of wild and cultivated seeds and some of them must have been gathered deliberately, because they were not easy to kind. The soup was probably for a special occasion.
2. The soup was made up from seeds which were connected only with the spring.
The body is currently kept in the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark.
Julie and Allie are the coolest people alive!!!! :) A Tollund Man web page: http://home6.inet.tele.dk/hjortspr/Tollundmand.htm
Silkeborg Museum web page: http://www.tourist.silkeborg.dk/Attractions/Museer/Sl_museum.htm
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