Lindow Man
2 BC to 119 AD
In a dim, quiet alcove lies the upper body of a man who died about two thousand years ago. His skin, tanned brown and leathery by the peat bog that held him, still shows his beard, moustache and neatly trimmed fingernails. His face is peaceful. He was in his mid twenties, healthy and well fed, and had done little heavy manual work, which suggests he was a person of some standing in Iron Age Britain. The lower part of his body was cut away by the peat cutting machine that found him.
The bog preserved him and also tells his story. He had eaten a last meal of charred bread made from wheat and barley, and his stomach contained pollen of mistletoe. He was struck twice on the head from behind with a heavy object, then garotted with a cord of animal sinew that is still around his neck, and finally his throat was cut before he was placed face down in a pool. Three ways of killing, in sequence, look like ritual rather than a simple murder, and many archaeologists see him as a human sacrifice, perhaps a willing one, in the years around the Roman conquest.
He was found in August nineteen eighty four in Lindow Moss, a peat bog in Cheshire, by workers on a commercial peat cutting operation. Conservators at the museum freeze dried the body over several weeks to stop it decaying in the air. The museum consulted widely on whether and how to display him, and he lies in low light with his own explanatory panel. Most visitors pause and speak quietly. Nearby you will find the objects of his world, the shields, mirrors and torcs of the Iron Age Britons the Romans met in forty three.
Did You Know? Traces of mistletoe pollen in his stomach have led some to link his death to the Druids, whom Roman writers associated with mistletoe and human sacrifice.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.