<< News >> Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim'
Submitted by vicky on Saturday, 03 April 2004 Page Views: 64385
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The museum describes Lindow Man as a 25-year-old man who met an horrific and drawn-out death. His skull was smashed by blows from a heavy object, he was strangled with a cord and his throat was cut. He was allowed to bleed for a time before being placed face down in a pond in the bog.
But any suggestion of ritual murder is dismissed by Robert Connolly, senior lecturer in physical anthropology at the University of Liverpool, and Ronald Hutton, professor of history at the University of Bristol and the author of Witches, Druids and King Arthur.
Mr Connolly believes that the man may have been murdered in a violent attack. “This isn’t an elaborate death,” he said. “He was clubbed to death. A small group of people believe it was a ritual killing, but it makes a better story. With respect to my archaeology colleagues, they like ritual sacrifices. The museum and several other people just want it to be a ritual sacrifice.”
The two men say that many of the wounds could have been inflicted during peat-cutting activities or from the man having been trampled by a horse.
They argue that Lindow Man’s throat cartilage shows no sign of the trauma associated with strangulation and that the decorative necklace, being made of animal sinew, probably shrank in the wet so that it looks like a garrotte.
Mr Connolly said: “We do not have evidence from this body of ritual sacrifice in Iron Age Cheshire. We musn’t write it into the books until we have evidence. That is disrupting history. That is not historical evidence. It wouldn’t stand up in court.”
Lindow Man was found in 1984 when workers cutting peat to be used in gardens discovered a leg. The acidic, oxygen-free conditions in the bog slowed down the rate at which the body decayed.
The dispute flared up this month in The Times Literary Supplement. Defending the museum’s position, J. D. Hill, an Iron Age curator, wrote that their interpretation was based on an assessment by Iain West, the forensic science pathologist, before his death in 2001.
Dr Hill maintains that Lindow Man was strangled: “There was a loop of sinew around his neck, tied with an unusual series of knots, which was extremely tight around his neck and left a well- defined mark on the front and sides of his throat. If this had been worn as an ornament in life, it would have been very tight. It was more probably used as a garrotte.”
Lindow Man will remain on display at the British Museum. Dr Hill said: “Even if the interpretation of a ritual killing is wrong, he’s the best-preserved Prehistoric or Roman Britain there is. He’s an Everyman from Britain’s past. That’s why people find him so fascinating.”
Source: The Times Online 21/03/2004
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