The Case of the Body in the Bog

In May of 1950 two men were cutting peat from a bog near Tollund, a village in Denmark. As their shovels carved away chunks of peat, a dark brown face suddenly appeared in the soil. A few scoops exposed parts of a man’s body.

His face seemed so fresh, so alive-looking, that the diggers thought they had uncovered the body of a recent murder victim. They wasted no time. Scrambling out of the pit, they ran to call the police in the nearby town of Silkeborg.

After hearing the details, the police were convinced that his death was not a recent one. They called upon a professor of European archeology to assist n the investigation of Tollund man, as the discovery came to be called.

Tollund man lay on his right side near the bottom of the bog where he had been covered by two and a half metres of peat. Because of the depth it was clear that his body had been in the bog for many years, perhaps even centuries.

The dead man’s knees were drawn up, his arms crossed, his eyes closed as if he was peacefully asleep. Only when a piece of peat next to his head was removed did the story behind his death become clearer. Around his neck, twisted and tightly knotted, was a leather rope. Tollund man hadn’t died peacefully at all. He had been hanged.

Bodies had been discovered in bogs across Europe before. Some of the victims had been hanged, others drowned. Most had been placed in the bog after their death. Many of the bodies were badly decomposed when they were found. But Tollund man was different. His body was well preserved. It was obvious that someone had closed his eyes and mouth, then carefully arranged his body in a sleeping position.

A peat bog often has a history hundreds of years old. Usually, the bog starts as a lake. Mosses called sphagnum or peat moss grown in the lake. As one generation of moss dies, ti sinks in the lake and a new one takes it place. Over many years layers of dead moss settle to the bottom. The moss decays, releasing acids into the water. While the top layer of peat is wet and spongy, the weight of the water above packs the lower layers so tightly that water and oxygen cannot pass trough. Ay organic matter sealed in the lower layers of peat decays very slowly, preserved by the acids in the bog water.

Tollund man’s face was particularly well preserved. The acids in the bog had stained it the same brown colour as the surrounding peat. Short stubble covered its surface, the skin was smooth and taut, the cheeks full, the brow slightly wrinkled. Its expression was one of calm and dignity.

The head was covered with a pointed cap made from eight pieces of sheepskin sewn together and tied under the chin. Except for a leather belt knotted around the stomach, the rest of the body was naked. The skin hung loosely on the bony frame.

In order to prevent decay and to allow further study, the body and the peat around it were lifted from the pit, crated and shipped to the National Museum in Copenhagen. There the detective work began in earnest. Clearly Tollund man had died many years before, the scientist found many of their questions unanswered. Why had he been executed? Who were his murderers? If he had been merely a criminal, then why had his body been so carefully placed in the bog?

The scientific study of the body started with a physical examination. Measurements sowed that Tollund man was 173 centimetres tall. He had wisdom teeth which mean that he must have been more than 20 years old. From all appearances, he had been in good health at the time of his death.   

To probe deeper scientists conducted an autopsy on the body. Inside the stomach they found hundreds of tiny seeds. Under the high magnification of a microscope, seeds from dozens of kinds of plants, both cultivated and wild, were identified. No trace of meat, nor any leaves or fruit, were found.

The autopsy showed that 112 to 24 hours before his death, Tollund man had eaten a last meal of a type of porridge made from grains, seeds, and linseed oil. One of the grains was a form of barley not grown after A.D. 200.  This meant that Tollund man must have died between 400 B.C. and A.D. 200, during a period known as the Iron Age.

To find more clues, scientists turned to historical records. The Iron Age people had no written language, but they had been invaded by the ancient Romans, who left many detailed accounts of their conquests. One Roman historian, Tacitus, described the habits and rituals of northern tribes.

Tacitus gave two explanations for bog deaths. Once concerned punishment. Mean and women who committed serious crimes were often hanged or dumped into a bog and weighted down there. The other explanation involved the religion of the Iron Age people.

At that time bogs were thought to be the dwelling places of the gods. Often iron Age people made offering to the gods by leaving tributes of meat or porridge in the bogs Although there were many gods, the main one was Mother Earth, the goddess of fertility. According to Tacitus even humans were sometimes sacrificed to Mother Earth to gain her support,

By combining the facts uncovered by scientists, the details provided by Tacitus, and the information known about other bog deaths, a hazy picture of the events surrounding Tollund man’s death began to form.

The winter had been long and cold, but now there were signs that Mother Earth was stirring restlessly. The tribe gathered in the sacred grove, a place close to Mother Earth. Here they would give her a gift, a tribute to guarantee that life would once again return to the land.

The gift had to be the best, the finest the people could offer. From among their ranks one man was chosen. He was at the prime of life, at the peak of his fitness. Graciously he accepted the honour. He readied himself for the final event by eating the carefully prepared ceremonial meal a mixture of seeds, grain, and oil. These were the final remnants of the winter food supplies.

At the appointed hour, in a sacred spot near the place which would one day be Tollund, a leather noose was fitted over his neck and pulled tight. In the ancient tradition of the people, the man was hanged Then his body was carefully laid to rest in the bog, the home of Mother Earth.

The air was frosty, the ground firm and cold. But the people were confident. Surely now Mother Earth would return their gift. Surely now the soil would warm, the seeds would sprout, and the glory of Mother Earth would return once again to the land.

While no one can be certain of the exact events behind Tollund man’s death, another body discovered a short distance from Tollund two years later supports this view.

Grauballe man, as the second body came to be know, was also discovered by peat cutters. He was around 30 years old when he died. His hands showed that he never had to do much manual labour. From all appearances, he too had eaten a ritual meal shortly before his death. The remains of a thick porridge containing at least sixty different types of grains and seeds was found in his stomach.  Like Tollund man he had died violently, his throat cut. Was his blood spilled as a further offering to Mother Earth?

After completing their investigations, scientists decided to preserve the two bog bodies.  In the case of Tollund man on the head was saved, but the whole of Grauballe man’s body was preserved. Using a method similar to the natural tanning process of the bog, Grauballe man was soaked in concentrated chemical solutions for more than a year and a half. Then his body was bathed in oils and impregnated with glycerin, lanolin, and collodion.

Today the remains of Tollund man and Grauballe man can both be viewed at the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, still looking much as they did when they died in the iron Age over 2000 years ago.