Lindow Man
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lindow Man is the name given to the naturally-preserved bog body of an Iron Age man, discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss,OSNGSJ82058055,Mobberley side of the border with Wilmslow, Cheshire, northwest England, on 1 August 1984 by commercial peat-cutters. At the time, the body was dubbed "Pete Marsh" (a pun on "peat marsh")by Middlesex Hospital radiologists which was then adopted by local journalists. The body has been freeze dried for preservation and is now usually on display in the recently refurbished Gallery 50 of The British Museum, London. Its cabinet is the most climate controlled in the whole museum, and is so sensitive that even during recent renovations it was considered wiser to leave it boxed in a protective casing of hoardings than to take the risk of moving it. The body and associated objects will be loaned from the British Museum to form the exhibition "Lindow Man - a bog body mystery" at the Manchester Museum from 19 April 2008 - 19 April 2009.
Contents |
[edit] Archaeological interpretation
Lindow Man has been Carbon-14 dated to sometime between 2 BCE and 119 CE. This bog body is most noted for the "triple death" overkill it suffered. The killing is supposed to have begun with three blows to the head, followed by one incision into his throat. Lastly, a knotted cord fitted tightly to the neck and twisted, was found around his neck. He was found face down in an already mature bog at Lindow Moss. This may be suggestive of a ritual "slaying" because the Celtic symbol for religion is the triplism which was made apparent in his "triple" death. Opinion is divided as to whether this was a human sacrifice, an execution or both. Details of the practice of human sacrifice among the Celts are debated, as all literary accounts were written by their enemies.
Lindow Man was discovered on May 13, 1984 by two men working the shredder for their peat cutting company in the English county of Cheshire. Andy Mould and Stephan Dooley were looking for large rocks or wood hidden amongst the peat when they spotted what appeared to be a piece of wood. Once they removed some of the peat still attached to it, they discovered what appeared to a human leg and contacted the police. The next few years would see more parts of Lindow Man's body being discovered including deteriorated arms, torso and his right foot in 1984 and then again in 1988 parts of his skin and his legs, buttocks and right thigh.
The bog's acidity had preserved the contents of his stomach: his last meal consisted largely of burnt cereal grains, wheat, bran, and barley, possibly identifying a sacrificial offering rather than an ordinary supper. The presence of mistletoe pollen in the victim's stomach is highly suggestive, given the many Druidical associations with mistletoe. Mistletoe is a poisonous plant known to cause convulsions, and is unlikely to have been ingested accidentally. The manner of death is also well-documented in later Celtic commentaries. However, as discussed by Gordon Hillman (1986) pollen found in his gut most likely represents pollen which was caught on the stigmas of flowering cereals, which was thereafter stored and eaten with the grain.
Dr Anne Ross has suggested that Lindow Man was a druid, as this would explain the evidence of minimal hard labour. She proposed that he was sacrificed, possibly at Beltain, after a symbolically burnt meal of grain bread. An alternative view is championed by the writer John Grigsby who suggested he met his death enacting the role of a dying and resurrecting fertility god, broadly akin to Attis or Osiris, a theory supported by the fact that chemical analysis of his skin seems to show that Lindow Man went to his death painted a suitably vegetal green colour.
[edit] Other finds
The finding of Lindow Man was not the only instance of human remains being discovered in Lindow Moss. A fragment from another body, Lindow Woman, was previously discovered in the vicinity in 1983, when the same peat workers had uncovered a partially decomposed skull. The skull was determined to still have hair clinging to the scalp and the left eyeball still intact with pieces of the brain tissue still visible. Following the preliminary forensic report, the police concluded that the skull was that of a European female between the ages of 30 and 50, prompting a local man to confess to the murder of his wife some 20 years earlier. Peter Reyn-Bardt confessed that he had indeed raped his wife, then killed and dismembered her, in the Lindow Moss bog. Subsequently, the Oxford University Research Laboratory for Archaeology carbon-dated the skull and determined that the skull was not that of a woman, but of a man who had died almost 2000 years earlier. Based on the strength of his confession, however, Mr. Reyn-Bardt was convicted of murder.[1]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Grigsby, John Warriors of the Wasteland. Watkins Publishing, 2005.
- A controversial book on the Grail legends that seeks to fit the death of Lindow Man into a reconstructed Ancient British Mystery cult akin to that celebrated by the Greeks at Eleusis. Not a major book on Lindow Man as such but one that suggests a possible framework in which his death can be viewed.
- Ross, Anne and Don Robins. 1989. The Life and Death of a Druid Prince. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-74122-5
- Presenting the historical and archaeological reasoning, for the ideas of Lindow Man's social status, and suspected reasons for death. While not an exhaustive overview of the archaeological procedures used in the uncovering of the peat bog body, Ross and Robins attempt to provide insights to the Celtic and Druidic worlds of Lindow Man's age.
- Stead, Bourke, and Brothwell (ed.) 1986, Lindow Man: The Body in the Bog. ISBN 0-7141-1386-7 London. The British Museum. See pages 90 - 114 for information regarding diet.
- A collection of essays regarding the results from examinations of the Lindow Man. Anatomical features, forensic studies, diet and environment, artefacts, and theories regarding his death are but a few of the topics covered in this extensive collection written by experts in their fields. Does not focus on druid rituals, just facts.
- Page 12 shows a site plan of where he was found, along with Lindow Woman, and page 16 the origins of "Pete Marsh".
