Famous Figures With Unique Distinctions Codexery

Tollund Man

Iron Age bog body preserved for over two millennia.

Last updated

The Tollund Man is a naturally mummified bog body from the Pre-Roman Iron Age, found in 1950 near Silkeborg, Denmark.[1] The individuals who uncovered Tollund Man initially believed they were looking at a corpse from a homicide that had occurred not long before, because his face was so remarkably intact.[1][2] A noose constructed from twisted animal hide was still fastened around his neck when he was found, and forensic analysis determined that he was killed by hanging sometime between 405 and 380 BCE.[3]

Key facts and history

The police called in archaeologist Peter Vilhelm Glob, who estimated the remains were about 2,000 years old.[4] He wore a pointed sheepskin cap fastened under his chin and a hide belt, but was otherwise naked.[5] His eyes and mouth remained gently closed, and his facial skin, wrinkles, eyelashes and short beard stubble were still intact.[6] On 31 May 1950, physicians Christian Bastrup and Bjovulf Vimtrup examined him at Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen.[7][8]

Strontium isotope analysis indicated he remained within present-day Denmark during his final year and travelled at least 32 km in the last six months.[9] Positioned in a curled-up posture, Tollund Man was located 60 meters from solid ground and covered by 2.3 meters of peat.[10] The bog's acidic conditions caused most of his bones to break down, yet his soft organs—such as the heart, lungs, and liver—stayed preserved.[11] Carbon-14 analysis indicates that Tollund Man died between 405 and 380 BCE, and he is thought to have been roughly 40 years old at the time of his death.[12]

What the cited sources add

A 2021 re-examination of his gut contents found his final meal was a thick porridge of six-rowed barley, pale persicaria seeds and flax, with fish also present.[13][14] Museum Silkeborg states that Tollund Man represents the first time scientists successfully preserved part of a bog body.[15] To stabilize the head, conservators employed a process that involved immersing it in a sequence of liquid baths and then treating it with warm beeswax.[16][15] In the current museum display, the authentic head is joined to a reconstructed body.[17]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lewis, "Tollund Man", Public Broadcasting System, 2006; Glob, "The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved", New York Review of Books, 2004, p. 304; "A Body Appears", The Tollund Man – A Face from Prehistoric Denmark, 2004; "Violence in the Bogs" , Archaeological Institute of America (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Levine, "Europe's Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets", May 2017. facts only, no text reused. smithsonianmag.com
  3. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Dating bog bodies by means of 14C-AMS", Journal of Archaeological Science, 1 April 2004, p. 471–491; Glob, "The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved", New York Review of Books, 2004, p. 304; "A Body Appears", The Tollund Man – A Face from Prehistoric Denmark, 2004; Glob, "The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved", New York Review of Books, 2004, p. 304 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "A Body Appears", The Tollund Man – A Face from Prehistoric Denmark, 2004; Glob, "The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved", New York Review of Books, 2004, p. 304; "A Body Appears", The Tollund Man – A Face from Prehistoric Denmark, 2004; "A Body Appears", The Tollund Man – A Face from Prehistoric Denmark, 2004 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Glob, "The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved", New York Review of Books, 2004, p. 304; "Preservation of the Tollund Man", The Tollund Man – A Face from Prehistoric Denmark, 2004 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Tollund Man: Hair and beard", Silkeborg Public Library, 2004; Glob, "The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved", New York Review of Books, 2004, p. 304 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. "Medical examinations of the body", Museum Silkeborg. facts only, no text reused. museumsilkeborg.dk
  8. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Medical examinations of the body", Museum Silkeborg; "Medical examinations of the body", Museum Silkeborg; Lewis, "Tollund Man", Public Broadcasting System, 2006 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Levine, "Europe's Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets", May 2017 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The discovery of Tollund Man", Museum Silkeborg (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Preservation of the Tollund Man", The Tollund Man – A Face from Prehistoric Denmark, 2004; Glob, "The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved", New York Review of Books, 2004, p. 304 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Van der Plicht, "Dating bog bodies by means of 14C-AMS", Journal of Archaeological Science, 1 April 2004, p. 471–491; Glob, "The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved", New York Review of Books, 2004, p. 304; "The Tollund Man's Appearance", Silkeborg Museum; Glob, "The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved", New York Review of Books, 2004, p. 304 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  13. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nielsen, "The last meal of Tollund Man: new analyses of his gut content", Antiquity, 2021, p. 1195–1212 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  14. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nielsen, "The last meal of Tollund Man: new analyses of his gut content", Antiquity, 2021, p. 1195–1212; Silkeborg Museum, The Last Meal , Silkeborg Museum and Amtscentret for Undervisning, Silkeborg Public Library, 2004. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  15. Kelly, "The Crazy History Of Bog Bodies", Grunge, 2021-02-14. facts only, no text reused. grunge.com
  16. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kelly, "The Crazy History Of Bog Bodies", Grunge, 2021-02-14; Kluger, "What the Bog Man Tells Us", 31 July 2014 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  17. Wikipedia, "Tollund Man" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Preservation of the Tollund Man", The Tollund Man – A Face from Prehistoric Denmark, 2004; Levine, "Europe's Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets", May 2017 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Tollund Man (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Related entries

Named in this entry

BogMargaret Thatcher

More in Famous Figures With Unique Distinctions

Robert RayfordRobert Tappan MorrisRobert WadlowRodney KingRoy RaymondRuth HandlerRyan WhiteSada AbeSarah BaartmanSchlitzieStephen Van RensselaerSteve Fossett

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

Spotted an error? Know more?

Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced

Comments

Loading…
Open in the interactive codex →