Tollund Man was lying on the right side of his body, legs pulled up to his chest, his facial expression calm and peaceful. When he was found, he was so well preserved that the two brothers, who found his body, had thought that he was recently murdered and dumped in the bog. They quickly called the police of Silkeborg and since previously there were bodies found in the peat bog before, the police didn’t call the forensic investigators but a scientist, P.V. Glob to come and view the discovery. He understood that it was an ancient burial and transported the body to the National Museum of Copenhagen for further examinations. When they had finished the examinations, they found out that Tollund Man was 30-40 years of age at death …show more content…
How were the archaeologists able to date the body and/or any artefacts found with the body? You must provide specific dating techniques used.
Archaeologists were able to date Tollund Man’s body, his belt, his hat and the noose around his neck by using a dating method called Carbon-14 several times to finally get to a conclusion about approximately when he was buried. Before they used Carbon-Dating, they had inspected the peat bog he was in and quickly concluded that he was buried around 2000 years earlier but then they used Carbon-14 to get a more accurate estimate. Many samples were taken from both soft and hard tissue and they were able to presume that Tollund Man died between 375–210 BC.
The circumstances surrounding the discovery of the body
When they had discovered the body, they examined the peat bog he was buried in as well and specialists in geology could tell that the bog was made the same time the Tollund Man was buried in it. There were some occasions where they have found spades and earthenware vessels in peat bogs. It was then they realised that people of the Iron Age dug peat as well. Archaeologists and geologists believe that they used to cut peat when there weren’t enough wood for