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A homecoming for man found in bog

Angela Kelly
15/ 4/2008

A FORMER resident of Wilmslow is back in home – Lindow Man is making a welcome return to Manchester Museum.

The remains of what was originally thought to be a 2,000-year-old Iron Age man were discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss in 1984 by two men working for a peat cutting company.

When they uncovered a human skull they contacted the police – beginning an adventure and mystery that is still not fully solved today.

The bog’s chemical make-up had preserved the body well – its stillrecognisable face had traces of a beard and moustache.

Some hair still clung to the scalp, but his only clothing was a fox fur arm band.

Immediately, scientists, archaeologists, historians and curators began the challenging task of unpicking the facts surrounding Lindow Man. They discovered he had suffered three blows to the head, had had his throat cut and that a knotted cord had been fitted tightly to his neck and twisted in typical garotte fashion. Was this an execution, a human sacrifice or both? Or was there another, much simpler explanation?

Since his discovery, Lindow Man has been in the care of the British Museum. He needed to be treated immediately and ‘freeze-dried’ to artificially continue the preservation the bog had managed to do naturally. He is kept in a carefully controlled climate.

He was previously displayed at Manchester Museum in 1987 and 1991, but will start a year-long visit back north in an intriguing exhibition that takes a fresh look at his story.

"The storing of human remains has become a much more emotive subject in more recent years," explained Bryan Sitch, the museum’s curator of archaeology and head of human cultures.

"The museum’s own policy is very clear about treating them with respect and dignity, so we prepared this exhibition with great sensitivity, talking to a variety of people early on, including Pagans for whom Lindow Man has a deeper spiritual significance."

Bryan interviewed people who had been involved in the Lindow story – including the men who found him – inviting them to contribute items to the new exhibition.

They were displayed alongside those directly relating to Lindow Man himself, such as a traditional implement for peat cutting. He also talked to a forensic scientist and a landscape archaeologist. Druid priest Emma Restall Orr contributed a mead horn and crow feathers, which Pagans believe have links to the dead.

Perhaps most unusual of all, Susan Chadwick – a former member of the Lindow Primary School Choir which even made a record about Lindow Man – has put a Care Bear in the exhibition.

"This has importance for Susan because as a six-year-old she had to go into hospital for an operation around the time Lindow Man was discovered," said Bryan.

"Her parents gave her the Care Bear for being brave, and she associates this with that time, and with Lindow Man himself because there are strong community feelings still about him.

"He was, and is, regarded as a neighbour, an ancestor."

Scientific advances mean certain original findings are now open to reinterpretation and, as Bryan Sitch stated, Lindow Man is now thought to be around 1,900 years old.

"This would put him possibly in AD 100, so he would have been an early Briton under the Roman occupation of the Emperor Trajan," he said. Newer tests on Lindow Man’s hair and fingernails could reveal more about his origins and way of life.

"There are, though, very few opportunities in life to look into the face of someone from this time and ask questions about them," he added. "This exhibition offers us a unique opportunity to do just that."

Judging by the early interest in his homecoming, Lindow Man is set to fascinate and inform new generations for years to come.

Lindow Man will be on display at Manchester Museum from April 19, 2008 until April 2009. A blog about Lindow Man can be read at http://lindowmanchester.wordpress.com