Tollund Man: The 2,400-Year-Old Bog Body That Still Fascinates the World

I have always been a little uneasy about human bodies in museums, regardless of their age. It isn’t a disquiet based on religion, but around the issue of permission.  I’m opting for cremation when my last page turns, and that will avoid me becoming the Tollund Man of the year 4000 no matter what the cause of my demise (hopefully). I wouldn’t want people gawping at my human remains – although I can think of any number of people who would probably relish the thought of people looking at them thousands of years in the future. Not my kind of immortality, I’m afraid!  We will obviously never know what Tollund Man or Grauballe Man, two of Denmark's most famous 'bog bodies,' preserved for over 2,000 years in peat bogs might  think of the ultimate fate of their bodies.  It’s unlikely that they would even understand the concept of a museum, let alone their place in it.  And besides, besides, besides…

On to the video. Ole Nielsen of the Silkeborg Museum walks us through the discovery of Tollund Man, whose case was as cold as can be (even though his death was not natural), but whose face is the best-preserved from pre-history that we have and who gives us many clues about what life was like in the way back when.  The team at the museum also use cutting-edge technology to see more of Tollund Man’s physiology – and the results are remarkable.  What I always find even more fascinating, though, are the reconstructions of ancient faces - and there is one at the museum which shows us what Tollund Man would have looked like just before he died.  I used that to ask AI to visualise him in his native habitat - that's the image you see at the top of this post.

As I said, I do have some reservations around bodies being exhibited in museums, but was a little comforted (if that is quite the right word) by one of the comments on the video by @LPdedicated.  It goes: “I worked at Silkeborg Museum and every morning when I opened the exhibition, I would just sit in the room with the Tollund man in silence for a few minutes before I went to my office… Fun fact: every year at the start of November his birthday is celebrated at campus".  So, although he could never envision what would happen to him after his death let alone give permission, at least Tollund Man had some at least one thoughtful companion in the museum.  I am sure the commenter is not the only one to have spent time reflecting in this manner – and there aren’t many people who have been dead 2,400 years whose birthdays are still celebrated. So perhaps TM wouldn't be too unhappy about it, after all.

I digress.  Watch the fascinating video about the Danish bog bodies below.