Tollund Man

Tollund Man
The Tollund Man's preserved head
Bornc. 445–420 BCE
Diedc. 405–384 BCE (aged ~40)
present-day Tollund, Denmark
Cause of deathHanging (presumably ritual sacrifice)
Body discovered8 May 1950
Silkeborg, Denmark
56°9′52″N 9°23′34″E / 56.16444°N 9.39278°E / 56.16444; 9.39278
Height161 cm (5 ft 3 in)

The Tollund Man (died 405–384 BCE) is a naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 5th century BC, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age.[1] He was found in 1950, preserved as a bog body, near Silkeborg on the Jutland peninsula in Denmark.[2] The man's physical features were so well preserved that he was mistaken for a recent murder victim.[3] Twelve years before his discovery, another bog body, Elling Woman, was found in the same bog.[4]

The cause of death has been determined to be by hanging. Scholars believe the man was a human sacrifice, rather than an executed criminal, because of the arranged position of his body, and his eyes and mouth being closed.[5]

  1. ^ Lewis, Susan K. (2006). "Tollund Man". Public Broadcasting System – NOVA. Archived from the original on 18 November 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
  2. ^ Glob, P. (2004). The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved. New York: New York Review of Books. p. 304. ISBN 978-1-59017-090-8.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference lib was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Violence in the Bogs" Archived 18 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Archaeological Institute of America
  5. ^ Hart, Edward, dir. "Ghosts of Murdered Kings". NOVA. Prod. Edward Hart and Dan McCabe, PBS, 29 January 2014

© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search