Who is the Tollund Man?
The Tollund Man was a man who lived during Denmark’s Iron Age. He is distinctive because he was buried in a peat bog around 400 BCE, and the conditions in the bog preserved his body. When two people were cutting peat in 1950, they discovered his naturally mummified body, which was so perfectly preserved that they thought they had stumbled upon a fresh corpse. They reported the find to the police, who were puzzled until they brought in an archaeologist; the archaeologist realized that far from being a fresh body, the Tollund Man represented a major historical discovery. Peat bogs are unique environments. They are formed through the slow decomposition of moss, grasses, and other plant material which accumulate in a marsh which cannot drain properly. If the weather is cold enough, it slows the decomposition of this plant material, promoting a damp, acidic environment which slowly starts to carbonize the plants. The result is peat, which will turn into coal if it is left alone long enough.
