turiking.co.uk/
There are more than 500 other bodies that have been discovered in bogs across Denmark and around 700 in all of Europe. Most are from the early Iron Age, just like the victim near Tollund. Many of them have had their deaths explained as ritual sacrifice.
And that's something that we really want to test, to see if we can see whether or not we think that that's actually the case.
In ancient Mayan sacrifices, some remains have been found with hallucinogenic drugs in them, which may have made them more willing to go to their deaths. Could the Tollund Man, whose body shows no signs of struggle, have been drugged before he died? Turi’s come to Copenhagen, where she's tracked down Dr. Peter Steen Henriksen, and the victim’s stomach contents, nearly two and a half thousand years after his death.
This brown sediment here is actually his last meal. Yeah, and I'm taking some of this and put it under the microscope and we’ll try to see.
Yeah, I would love to.
Yeah.
Oh, that's so cool.
The ingredients of the victim's last meal are readily identifiable. Most of the particles are barley with various small plant seeds, including flax mixed in.
You can see nearly entire seeds, that's extraordinary.
They grinded it before making porridge.
But among this ordinary seeming porridge mix are stranger ingredients to, small splinters of charcoal and numerous grains of sand.
I would say for a normal meal, I would not put in, for example, sand.
So, this sort of waste material, are they adding it afterwards or is it just they haven't been very tidy?
We can't be totally sure, when they're threshing, they did it on the floor. Which means when they pick it up it's full of seeds and sand and whatever was lying on that floor.
But Peter thinks there's too much waste material to be simply poor hygiene.
I think they have been actually mixing it afterwards.
So, it sounds like it's deliberate, is it to bulk it out because food is scarce or?
I don't think so, I think it's actually some kind of ritual meal.
That's interesting, so is there anything in there that's poisonous or hallucinogenic?
No, he hasn't been intoxicated or anything like that.
He's not drugged or?
No.
Despite Peter’s theory, the stomach contents have no concrete evidence indicating ritualised sacrifice. The meal is similar to that found in other bog bodies.
To discover if the Tollund victim is typical of other finds in Denmark. Turi is traveling to Vejle, just 40 miles south of the crime scene, where another well-preserved body has been found. She's meeting curator Charlotta Lindblom.
Oh, this is a very interesting bog body. It was actually the first one found in Denmark in 1835.
Found and kept complete, the female body dubbed Haraldskær Woman, after the place she was found, looks very like the Tollund Man.
It's not so clear when you see her now, but you can see it on the back of her neck, she was hanged or garrotted.
Unlike the victim in Tollund, Haraldskær Woman was surrounded by sacrificial objects. Her clothes, cap and a lock of hair were neatly placed beside her. Her body was also crisscrossed with branches, holding her down.
How do we know somebody is not just dropped something? How do we know it's actually…
Because it's very carefully put there. Hair, piece of hair, like, I don't know what the English word for, when you look just like…
You braid your hair.
Your braid your hair. That could be a woman asking for fertility.
Haraldskær Woman’s relics are convincing evidence of a sacrificial killing. Tollund Man has nothing like that.
Representation: www.josarsby.com/turi-king
15 ноя 2023
