Messages in the Macabre: Examining Causes of Death in Bog Bodies Tollund Man, found 1950, Denmark

Tollund Man noose

Windeby Girl band around eyes, shorn hair

body sphagnum moss

Bog in Silkeborg, Denmark “Afterwards the vestments and the divinity herself are purified in a secret lake. Slaves perform the rite, who are instantly swallowed up by its waters. Hence arises a mysterious terror and a pious ignorance concerning the nature of that which is seen only by men doomed to die.” —Tacitus, Germania “The coward, the unwarlike, the man stained with abominable vices, is plunged into the mire of the morass, with a hurdle put over him…Infamy [they think] ought to be buried out of sight.”

Grauballe Man

“Strange things happen in the bog. There will always be some ambiguity. I sort of like the idea that there’s some stuff we’ll really never know.” – Niels Lynnerup, Danish forensic investigator