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News: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim'

Submitted by vicky on Saturday, 03 April 2004  Page Views: 23010
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Lindow submitted by Vicky

Lindow Man, whose 2,000-year-old body was found in a peat bog in Cheshire, was the victim of a simple murder and not a ritual sacrifice, according to two academics. They say that the British Museum should remove the preserved body from its galleries and erase him from the history books.

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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Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim'

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"Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim'" | Login/Create an Account | 57 comments
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Re: Lindow Man (Score: 1)
by Vicky on Monday, 22 March 2004
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If he was a simple murder victim then why was he wearing nothing but an armband of fox fur and why had his body been painted with some kind of copper-based pigment? When they examined his stomach contents they found no water/moss from the pool in there, implying that his gullet had been closed before death and therefore suggesting strangulation prior to being deposited in the pool. Also the area where he was found was located several hundred metres from the nearest dry land, so his assasins would have had real problems getting there, sinking frequently up to their knees in the bog. Seems like an awful lot of effort to get rid of a murder victim to me.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man (Score: 1)
by Thorgrim on Monday, 22 March 2004
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Lindow Man has to be seen alongside the many ritual bog killings of the period in Denmark and Germany. Even if it was murder rather than sacrifice - why remove the body from the British Museum? Arrogance of experts!
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 1)
by Robc on Monday, 22 March 2004
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"The man was not a peasant: his finger nails were manicured and his moustache carefully clipped with a razor."
His body was painted and naked apart from a foxfur amulet. His last meal was a multi-grained bread and the presence of mistletoe pollen in his stomach has lead to speculation that it may have been a druidic sacrifice.
" Lindow man is our best piece of evidence for the practise of human sacrifice in Celtic Britan..the young man had been pole-axed garotted and his throat cut"
"Certain Irish mythological stories allude to a ritual threefold killing of the sacral king - by wounding drowning and burning. It is tempting to link this triple injuries to the Lindow Man; he was hit on the head, strangled and his throat cut"

Information taken from "Dictionary of Celtic myths and legends" by Miranda J Green published 1992.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 1)
by Vicky on Thursday, 01 April 2004
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The Brirish Museum's Response to this article can be found here:

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/news/articles/Lindowresponse.pdf
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, 05 April 2004
I beleive prehistoric people placed their dead in water which over time became a bog, This seem to be the case here with the draining of a bog with artefacts found in a small area. Arthur,Burbage,Leicestershire
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 1)
by Robc on Thursday, 08 April 2004
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Aparently there have been two bodies in the area, Lindow Man II (nicknamed Pete Marsh) and Lindow Man III. Lindow III. The second person died abour a hundred years later. His head was severed. (this might have been after death). His body was painted and again finger nails were well manicured. Whats more he was special in his possesion of a vestigial second thumb.
One body might be an accident but two looks like ritual sacrific to me !!
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 1)
by Vicky on Friday, 09 April 2004
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There are also 3 other decapitated heads from other North West peat bogs nearby - one from Red Moss in Bolton - 'Reebok Girl', one from Ashton Moss in Tameside and 'Worsley Man' from Astley Moss near Worsley. Must be more than just coincidence.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Wednesday, 28 April 2004
The Story of Lindow Man

Maybe Andy Mould had a special knack that most people don't have. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. But in 1983 and then again in 1984, he found human remains in an English peat bog known as Lindow Moss. The first time, he had found the head (mostly a skull with little skin or brain remaining) of a woman.

A year later, on August 1, 1984, he was working with Eddie Slack, placing blocks of peat onto an elevator that would transport them to a shredding mill, when he looked at one block of peat and noticed what he thought was a piece of wood embedded in it. He threw it toward Eddie but it struck the ground and crumbled, revealing a human foot. Without hesitation, Andy reported his disturbing find, and shortly the police arrived. With Andy and Eddie's help, they located the area of the bog where the foot had been found. There, on the surface, was a flap of darkened skin belonging to what was later called Lindow Man. They covered it with wet peat until scientists could be summoned to view the body.

Five days later, in the presence of several paleobotanists and a biologist, the block of peat containing Lindow Man was cut, placed on a sheet of plywood, and transported to a local hospital. There, the authorities attempted to date the remains. After all, no one knew if Lindow Man was a recent murder victim or a man from the past.

As it turned out, Lindow Man had died between A.D. 50 and A.D. 100. The scientists learned, when the body was examined, that the man had been murdered. They determined this by examining his body visually and then inspecting x-rays of it. At the same time, they tried to create an image of Lindow Man's appearance. Then they looked inside - especially at his stomach - to find more clues to the mystery of his death.

Step 1: Examining Lindow Man Visually

A close visual examination provided obvious clues that Lindow Man had been murdered.

Head and neck. First, he had been hit twice on the crown of his head with a blunt object, probably an ax; he had also been struck once at the base of his skull. Second, he had been strangled. Around Lindow Man's neck was a small rope that had been twisted tightly, closing off his windpipe and breaking two of his neck vertebrae. Finally, scientists found a gash at the throat, which may indicate that his throat was cut, though some scientists think that the wound occurred naturally after his death. If indeed his throat was cut, it was probably done to drain his body of blood.

Hair. Scientists discovered some interesting details by looking at Lindow Man's hair and beard. They were surprised that he had a beard, since no other male bog body had been found with a beard; this was clearly not common at the time he lived. Scientists also learned that someone had trimmed Lindow Man's hair with scissors two or three days before his death. Historians and archaeologists knew that, although scissors existed in England at the time, they would have been uncommon, most likely reserved for a privileged few. Was the murdered man, they wondered, a dignitary?

Fingernails. Scientists found that his fingernails appeared well-manicured and cared for. They wondered if this showed that he was an important member of society, who was exempt from manual labor. But as Don Brothwell, who studied Lindow Man, explained, no one really knows what the manicured fingernails of a bog person would look like, since no one has ever compared the fingernails of mummies.

Clothing. Unfortunately, Lindow Man was naked, except for an arm band made of fox fur and the thin rope around his neck. Without clothes, he could have been a king or a laborer. As author Brothwell put it:

Why did he have a well-developed, but roughly trimmed, beard - unique among bog bodies - and well-kept nails? Was he an aristocrat fallen on hard times, or a high-born prisoner sacrificed to the gods?

Step 2: Reconstructing Lindow Man

Read the rest of this post...
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Thursday, 06 May 2004
i think lindow man was a working labourer and he had been sacrificed to die because he did not fulfill his deeds as a working man
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Saturday, 21 August 2004
I think that lindow man was a druid, that was sacrificed as a special event.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Thursday, 23 September 2004
well i think that lindow man was sacrifice
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, 27 September 2004
Hi! I really won't say my name, but I'm 12 years old and live in Ukiah and go to Pomolita in California. My friend Jaimee, and Justin and I have to do a report on Lindow Man and your info. has helped me out. People say he died because it was a sacrafice to the gods and it was all about the number 3. But, is true that they should erase this out of all the history books.
My sister Darlene says that history books do lir because they don't have the right information and that's true. I would like to thank everybody for probably not giving your info. out. Your info. will help us in Social studies. Thanks! By the way my name is Mele Pateta.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Tuesday, 01 March 2005
hello
i'm doin a project on the lindow man!
do you know what his name was?
and if he was murdered who murdered him?
i like the points that you brought out that it might not be a murder and the "GAROTT" might not have happened!
it'll be nice to here from you and the comment you bring forward!
from
sammy
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Tuesday, 05 April 2005
help help help help help
anyone have a map of the Lindow Man site?
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, 16 May 2005
What a load of rubbish a ritual killing, I am a university student studying archaeology and the evidence just does not add up. Ritual sacrifice all but ended in the UK from the late Neolithic/early Bronze age after the influx of the beaker society 2300 years prior to lindow mans death. I'm not saying I can give a reason for his murder but it was deffinately not a ritual. And those who claim he had body paint really should check their facts as it has now been proved that the colouring in his hair was caused by a reaction between chemicals naturally in the hair and the acidic peat.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Wednesday, 22 June 2005
lindow man was not a "simple murder victim"
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 1)
by coldrum on Friday, 01 July 2005
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Very strange murder.A quick stab in the back and body thrown in the nearest river would have been better than doing all that to him.
Academics dont like the word sacrifice it seems.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Wednesday, 10 August 2005
If he was a simple murder victim then why was he wearing nothing but an armband of fox fur and why had his body been painted with some kind of copper-based pigment? When they examined his stomach contents they found no water/moss from the pool in there, implying that his gullet had been closed before death and therefore suggesting strangulation prior to being deposited in the pool. Also the area where he was found was located several hundred metres from the nearest dry land, so his assasins would have had real problems getting there, sinking frequently up to their knees in the bog. Seems like an awful lot of effort to get rid of a murder victim to me.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man by Anonymous on Wednesday, 06 October 2004



Re: Lindow Man (Score: 1)
by Thorgrim on Monday, 22 March 2004
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Lindow Man has to be seen alongside the many ritual bog killings of the period in Denmark and Germany. Even if it was murder rather than sacrifice - why remove the body from the British Museum? Arrogance of experts!
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man by Anonymous on Sunday, 13 February 2005



Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 1)
by Robc on Monday, 22 March 2004
(User Info | Send a Message)
"The man was not a peasant: his finger nails were manicured and his moustache carefully clipped with a razor."
His body was painted and naked apart from a foxfur amulet. His last meal was a multi-grained bread and the presence of mistletoe pollen in his stomach has lead to speculation that it may have been a druidic sacrifice.
" Lindow man is our best piece of evidence for the practise of human sacrifice in Celtic Britan..the young man had been pole-axed garotted and his throat cut"
"Certain Irish mythological stories allude to a ritual threefold killing of the sacral king - by wounding drowning and burning. It is tempting to link this triple injuries to the Lindow Man; he was hit on the head, strangled and his throat cut"

Information taken from "Dictionary of Celtic myths and legends" by Miranda J Green published 1992.
[ Reply to This ]



Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 1)
by Vicky (sun.moon@ntlworld.com) on Thursday, 01 April 2004
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.megalithic.co.uk/shop/derbyshire_book.htm
The Brirish Museum's Response to this article can be found here:

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/news/articles/Lindowresponse.pdf
[ Reply to This ]



Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, 05 April 2004
I beleive prehistoric people placed their dead in water which over time became a bog, This seem to be the case here with the draining of a bog with artefacts found in a small area. Arthur,Burbage,Leicestershire
[ Reply to This ]



Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 1)
by Robc on Thursday, 08 April 2004
(User Info | Send a Message)
Aparently there have been two bodies in the area, Lindow Man II (nicknamed Pete Marsh) and Lindow Man III. Lindow III. The second person died abour a hundred years later. His head was severed. (this might have been after death). His body was painted and again finger nails were well manicured. Whats more he was special in his possesion of a vestigial second thumb.
One body might be an accident but two looks like ritual sacrific to me !!

[ Reply to This ]



Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 1)
by Vicky (sun.moon@ntlworld.com) on Friday, 09 April 2004
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Read the rest of this post...
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Wednesday, 10 August 2005
i reckon he died because of murder by some people and then was choked to death as well as strangled
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Friday, 02 December 2005
HI.. im from Canada and im doing a project on thr Lindow Man.. or whatever his name is... i think that it was true... is dose add up... the person who says it dosent dosent know what there talking about
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 1)
by DaveM on Thursday, 26 January 2006
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Pathological evidence is disputed even with a recently deceased body, never mind with one that has lain in a bog for 2000 years and been dug up in fairly uncontrolled circumstances. Same with clothing and appearance, bogs seem to be very variable in what they preserve and who can tell if there was other clothing originally?

So keep an open mind - ritual killing, in what ever form, isn't proven beyond all reasonable doubt yet.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, 21 May 2006
Facts showing that Lindow Man's Killing was due to some sort of ritual are pretty accurate to me.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, 30 April 2006
He was a priest or King who offerred himself to be sacrificed to appease the gods, inorder to defeat the invading Romans.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, 30 April 2006
& your evidence is what precisely?
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, 04 March 2007
Perhaps his clothing and everything else he possessed is missing because the robbers who murdered him took them. Clothing was very valuable in those days. Wouldn't it stand to reason that, if he were robbed and murdered, he would be naked? If he were a vengence murder, he probably would have been disposed of with his clothing. However, it does seem a rather elaborate murder. Weren't the blows to the head enough? The throat being cut is inconclusive, but the broken vertibrae does suggest an overly done murder unless, of course, the victim was unusually vigorous and continued to fight overly long.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, 11 March 2007
the encyclopedia of mummies writen by bob brier says that the lindow man was ritually killed so what am i suppose to believe? was he or wasn't he?
[ Reply to This ]


what do you know about "thr Lindow Man"? (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, 11 March 2007

Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Friday, 02 December 2005
HI.. im from Canada and im doing a project on thr Lindow Man.. or whatever his name is... i think that it was true... is dose add up... the person who says it dosent dosent know what there talking about

What are you talking about?
No offence but what do you know about what happened to Lindow Man? you can't even spell.
You should check your spelling before you post it on the internet where everyone can read it. You spelt "thr" wrong, it's suppose to be "the" also it's "does" not "dose" oh and one more you used the wrong "their", its not "there", there is when you are giving directions e.g. "the pot is over there".
[ Reply to This ]


Re: what do you know about (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, 11 March 2007
a sacrifice can generally be ruled out simply because the human sacrifices only happened in the southern areas. and this was very rare. the evidence suggests that Lindow man was a victim of possible foul play etc. get your facts right and make sure that your sentences make sense.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: what do you know about (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Thursday, 05 April 2007
Well I'm going to a lecture on this on 21/4 by a local archaeologist (I live in Manchester)... quite near the place.... I will report back what the expert has to say... my gut instinct is that it was deliberate & had some occult overtones... there are quite a few legends in the NW & Derbyshire of similar - although the druid thing puzzles me because they weren't prevalent in the NW but also other pagans probably knew about the uses of mistletoe so it wouldn't have to involve druids... any pagans here care to comment?...
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Tuesday, 17 April 2007
i read everything about lindow man on this website but i stilll dont understand what the main conclusion to lindow mans past is, who was he, what did he do, and why are nearly all the bogs said to be a sacrifice to the gods, i know you know a lot more than me, im just trying to do an assignment for school, but it would be good to know for sure who lindow man was, i know knowone really knows but so far i've found like 4 different theories and i dont know which one is best to study.
i dont know much about lindow man but it seems that he is pretty fascinating, but does anyone really know at all what life was like 2000 years ago, i know you have evidence and artifacts etc but i was doing an assignment in class and we had to study something from our time like a toilet seat or something, and we went into the future about 1000 years and asked ourself what it may have been if (like lindow man) knowone really knew what went on 1000 or 2000 years ago. we came up with some pretty waked up ideas of what the toilet seat migt be, like a weapon, or something someone wore on there bodies, and lots of crazy stuff, and it made me think when i read this, how do they even know what life was like 2000 years ago.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Tuesday, 17 April 2007
how do you know that iceman wasn't just up in the mountain looking for big foot....lol?
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Tuesday, 08 May 2007
I think he was killed in a horabla way to save the crops for next year
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 1)
by ddraig4 on Thursday, 07 June 2007
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I have to say that I agree with Dr Hill's assessment of the evidence in the Times Literary Supplement.

Ronald Hutton seems to take a delight in attacking ideas that he does not agree with often by ignoring or reinterpriting evidence to suite his own pet theory.
[ Reply to This ]


Lindow Man alias 'Pete Marsh' died as a sacrifice (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Thursday, 11 October 2007
All scientists say he died at different times but how can you tell which one is the right time?
How come it took so long for the peat cutters to find him?
How many people died from being dumped in the peat bog?
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, 04 February 2008
I think that the lindow man was sacrificed, when they found him he had rope around his neck and a slashed throat. I think after he was killed then dumped in the bog. they also found a peice of burned food in his stomach (from his last meal). in those days to pick who to sacrifice they would make some sort of pie, with one burnt peice, whoever picked the burnt peice was killed. I think it all adds up.
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Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, 04 February 2008
apperently the lindow man had been quite important, he was may be a king. He either got sacrificed or gave himself in. I doubt he was "a simple murder victim". Apperently he has eaten a burnt peice of food before his death (part of sacrifice in those days). =)
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Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Looks like no one else has read my favorite book, Life & Death of a Druid Prince by Ross & Robins... I am convinced that Lindow Man, the one they name Lovernicus, died as part of a ceremony to stop the advances of the Roman legions. Reading the book brought back some ancient memories (yuh, I can hear you thinking 'woo-woo'...) This is my reality, and is shared by many others. Science and expertise are overrated.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Friday, 18 April 2008
The Lindow man wasn't just a simple murder victim.

From the evidence that forensic science has gathered from his body they have found that the Lindow man had a symmetrical body which shows that he did no hard labor. It means that he did not doing any hard work so therefor he was not a slave or a warrior. He also had well manicured nails with no calluses also showing he did no hard work. By looking at this it shows he was very important in that society, most likely a durid priest.

He was found to have burnt bread in his stomach and from reports from Celtic anthrapologists we have found out that burnt bread was their way of choosing who the 'devoted one' was... the one who was going to be scarified to the gods.


By using secondary sources from Dr Anne Ross we know that the Celtic people sacrificed to gods and each god had different ways of being sacrificed. it is very possible that the Lindow man was sacrificed to three gods:

- Taranis the god of thunder: people sacrificed to this god were usually burnt, but if the Lindow man was to be sacrificed to three other gods he could not be burnt. Another way of sacrificing to this god was to strike the victim on the back of the head with the force of a thunderbolt.

- Esus the god of the underworld: Lindow man was sacrificed to this god when he was strangled and had his throat cut. the cut to the throat may have been caused by nature after death but it is more likely that it was caused as part of the sacrifice as a way of draining blood from the body.


- Teutates god of the tribe: he was sacrificed to this god when he was placed in the bog and drowned we have secondary information from Tacitus that states that bogs were sacred places.

From looking at the time that the Lindow man died, it is more than likely that he was sacrificed in a final effort to appease the gods and stop the roman invasion. Most people were not normally sacrificed the way that the Lindow man was, to three gods at once. He was a very important person in the Celtic society and may have been there final effort to please the gods. From studying all the information from a physical examination, information that forensic science has been able to pull off the body and knowledge we have gained from secondary sources it is more then likely that the Lindow man was a sacrificial victim not a 'simple murder victim'



[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Wednesday, 18 June 2008
If Lindow Man was found in isolation, maybe his death could be regarded as a simple murder. However, with the other bodies recovered from the same bog, it grows less likely. Even more so when you compare his death to that of similarly dated European bodies in Europe. Garotting,neck cutting, nakedness,similar final meals plus the even more auspicious 'manicured fingernails' which were unlikely to be found in Iron Age ordinary Joe. Two new bog bodies have also been recovered in Ireland within the last year or so--again, they are Iron Age & both had suffered horrific deaths and were buried on ancient land boundaries. Both men,again, had the tell-tale unworn hands/nails of high status. One man was massively huge-the pathologist estimates his height at at least 6ft4-something else that marked him as 'different'-like lindow II's extra thumb or the slight foot deformity of Yde girl.
As for the um, student who says with utter finality that no human sacrifice ever occurred-back to the books, sonny. Look up 'dedication burials' at iron Age hillforts for one. There also seemed to be a trend of rather dodgy early bronze age burials (ie at least one was victim bristling with arrows!) found at the entrances of henge monuments-Stonehenge being the most noteable of these,though not the only one.
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Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Saturday, 21 June 2008
Lindow man could've easily been put in the middle of that bog. If he had such a high status maybe that was the idea of putting him in the middle of it, so no one would find him. And if it was a sacrifice why wouldnt they have left a marker for their gods, it was obviously a way of concealing the body.
[ Reply to This ]


Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, 01 February 2009
i watched the documentary on the druids and the theory of the lindow man being a human sacrifice, sensationalism is my mild way of putting it, while i accept the forensic expertise this does not say why a person is killed only how they may lived or died, i think the man was a prisoner who was killed and thrown in the marsh, trauma to his head was to subdue him the grorrot was to control him the sliceing of his thoat was to kill him, the look of peace on his face may have been that he was happy to die for his cause or a taunt to his slayers that they could not break his spirit, who knows , this is conjecture but i feel no less valid, my greatest doubt to this being ritual is that why there? why then? why not before?the greatest and world renowned site for druid activity, stonehenge shows no sign of ritual sacrifice, surley if human sacrifice was part and parcel of the religion this its greatest alter would be its murder scene, were are the bodies ??????
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Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Wednesday, 13 January 2010
to the last poster-Stonehenge was never used by druids--it was a ruin when their cult flourished. It's thousands of years old...and btw, there IS some evidence of sacrifice there, including 9 cremations of children round an Aubrey hole, and a man 'guarding' the entrance who was shot in the back with arrows.
but back to lindow--this body is too similar to the others found in Europe and more recently in Ireland to just be coincidental. he wore an armband matching well one found on one of the Irish bodies. All of these men had manicured nails and seem to be high status-what's the random chance of that? Even if they were prisoners,which is a possibility, the nature of their death has ritual overtones.
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Re: Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Thursday, 04 February 2010
what a lot of interest in a 2000 year old man; consider what the scientists said garroted throat cut head let and a stomach containing burnt oat cakes (bannock)wild strawberries and the ever constan amanita muscar (magic mushroom)found on or inside so many of the ancient men

magic mushroom to dull the senses

a last meal of cake and Stawberries (which set the time of year)

garroted which decreases the flow of blood to the brain

head let releasing the life spirit

the ritual killing seems to have been humane ,at least

so when the scientist get it straightened out what will it matter ,wether it was ritual or just plain sacrifice murder is out of the question lets leave it that he was killed by person or persons unknown
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