History is all around us!

1. History is all around us!

2. Close your eyes! Imagine that you have a spade in your hands! Your family needs to keep warm! You are digging peat to burn on the fire! When suddenly you find...

4. The Body! This body was found in a peat bog on Tollund Fen in Denmark in May 1950. Two men were digging peat for burning. As they worked they suddenly saw in the peat layer a face so fresh they thought they had come across a recent murder. They called the police. The men carefully removed the peat from the body till more of him could be seen. The man lay on his right side as if he was asleep.

5. What had happened to him?

6. Let's examine the evidence!

7. A These items were found around the Tollund Man’s neck. The items are a rope noose and an iron neck ring. Iron Age people buried neck rings with their dead as an offering to the Spring Goddess.

8. B SCIENTIFIC REPORT AGE: The heart and organs were healthy. The wisdom teeth had grown. These appear in people around 20 years of age. STOMACH: The man had eaten at least 12 hours before he died. The soup was made up of seeds that were only connected with Spring. DOD: When they dug up the grave some plants were trapped under the body. They were about 2000 years old.

9. C The German tribes hang traitors from trees and drown cowards in fens under piles of sticks.

10. D This is a statue of an Earth Goddess found in a peat bog in Denmark.

11. E The German tribes worshiped the Goddess of Spring. Every Spring a cart carries a statue of the Goddess in a procession. Afterwards the cart and statues were washed by slaves, and then the slaves were sacrificed.

12. German Tribes hung traitors in trees, cowards, people afraid to go to war and people with bad morals were lowered into bogs and covered with branches. One historian, Tacitus, described how German tribes sacrificed human beings to Gods and Goddesses. F

13. G At the time of the Tollund Man there were different burial customs in Denmark, but the one thing they all had in common was that they included cremation - except for a small group of people who were sacrificed. They were placed in bogs without being cremated.

14. H The Tollund Man might have been naked when he was placed in the bog because he was a murdered slave. It might explain why he had an iron ring around his neck!

15. X-Rays The forensic report stated that the Tollund Man's neck was not broken. However, the forensic examiner was certain that he had been hanged. New examinations reveal among other things that his tongue was swollen which often happens when a person is hanged. I

16. Murder

17. Suicide

18. Sacrifice