The Tollund Man: The 2,400-Year-Old Sacrificial European Bog Body
Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty ImagesThe Tollund Man was one of many “bog bodies” found in a peat bog in Denmark.
In 1950, two Danish brothers were collecting peat in a bog near Silkeborg. But buried within the peat was something terrifying — a human body so well-preserved they believed the man had recently been murdered.
When police investigated, however, they found that the body had been buried beneath six feet of peat, with no signs of recent digging. After they turned the body over to archaeologists, radiological tests revealed that the man had actually died well over 2,000 years ago, between 375 and 210 B.C.E.
As it turned out, the “Tollund Man” — named after the village that the Danish brothers were from — had been a victim of human sacrifice.
For centuries, people have been unearthing bog bodies — often victims of human sacrifice or execution — who were naturally preserved by the acidic water, low temperatures, and scarce oxygen in peat bogs.
Through the ages, this combination has helped preserve the bodies’ hair, fingernails, and even some of their internal organs.
Wikimedia CommonsAnother bog body, Windeby I, a teenage boy found near Schleswig, Germany.
But the Tollund Man is one of the most well-preserved. Eerily, the noose that was used to hang him still sat around his neck.
While each of the bog bodies has its own unique story, researchers have come to understand that to Iron Age societies, the bogs were important spiritual sites. And it’s believed that hanging people as a sacrifice was done in order to ensure a bountiful harvest for the season.
However, there are many bog bodies of people who had been stabbed, bludgeoned, beaten, and strangled to death as well.
Not all mummies, it seems, were honorably preserved.