The wonderfully preserved face of the Man of Tollund
The mummies they are not only Egyptian:the so-called “swamp” they give us back the bodies of men and women who lived thousands of years ago in perfect condition.
In this case, however, human intervention is not involved, as it is nature that does everything:in fact, they are buried, remained and finally found inside peat bogs, typical of some northern European countries, where the spontaneous growth of sphagnum, a genus of mosses, manages to stop the normal decomposition process and keep the bodies almost unchanged for centuries and centuries.
Tollund's Man seen in its entirety (Silkeborg Museum, Denmark)
This is the case with the Man of Tollund , one of the swamp mummies best preserved in the world, amazing for the exceptional conditions in which it is found, to the point that at the time of its discovery, which took place in Denmark in 1950, it was thought of an individual killed recently and not thousands of years as it is in reality. / P>
But who was this gentleman whose face we can still admire today, complete with wrinkles, imperfections and skin folds?
Approximately 40 years old, 1.61 centimeters tall, the Man of Tollund lived in the 4th century BC. in Scandinavia and was almost certainly sacrificed during a ritual; the rope still present around his neck and accurate medical analyzes have long since ascertained his death by hanging.
The mummy is whole and practically intact in every point, but it is the face that strikes the most, also for its unaltered expressiveness; the dark coloration, as well as the reddish color of the hair, are a common feature of swamp mummies.
Currently the Man of Tollund is exhibited at the Museum of Silkeborg, in Denmark.