History - Denmark - page 606

DENMARK'S BOG BODIES
The people of Iron Age Denmark left little evidence and precious little by way of written
records of themselves. Thankfully, some extraordinary discoveries in the last couple of
centuries offer tantalising insights into this culture.
Drainage and peat cutting in Denmark's bogs has yielded hundreds of often amazingly
well-preserved bodies of men, women and children, mostly from the Iron Age (the early
centuries BC and AD).
Many of the bodies are also compelling historical who- and why-dunnits. Burial was un-
usual (cremation was common at the time) and some appear to have been ritually killed,
perhaps due to the supernatural power the Iron Age people are thought to have attrib-
uted to the bogs.
If it was ritual killing, were these people victims or willing participants? Windeby I, for
example, discovered in 1950 in Germany and aged about 16, was found underneath rocks
and branches, presumably used to push down the body and suggesting some kind of ritu-
al. Others may have simply been waylaid, murdered and dumped.
The Grauballe Man certainly died a nasty death that suggests a brutal execution. It's a
history and forensics conundrum, brilliantly illustrated at his current resting place, the
Moesgård Museum in Aarhus. In Copenhagen's Nationalmuseet , the Woman from
Huldremose met a seemingly horrific end, a vicious cut almost severing her right upper
arm. Twenty-two centuries after her death, she remains wrapped in her skirt, scarf and
snug-looking capes.
The most famous body of all is that of the Tollund Man. On show at the Museum Silke-
borg , his head is extraordinarily preserved, right down to the stubble on his chin. He died,
aged in his 30s, naked but for the beautifully plaited leather noose used to strangle him
and the leather cap he has worn for 2000 years. It frames an utterly serene face. Was he
a holy sacrifice or a punished prisoner? The mystery remains unsolved.
A (Quasi) Unified Denmark
By the early 9th century Jutland (and parts of southern Norway) were more or less united
under a single king. In the late 9th century unification of the territories that make up
modern-day Denmark inched forwards when warriors, led by the Norwegian chieftain
Hardegon, conquered the Jutland peninsula; Hardegon then began to extend his power
base across the rest of Denmark's territory.