Editing Lindow Man (section)

==Background==
===Lindow Moss===
{{Main|Lindow Common}}

Lindow Moss is a peat bog in Lindow, an area of Wilmslow, Cheshire, which has been used as [[common land]] since the [[medieval]] period. It formed after the [[Last glacial period|last ice age]], one of many such peat bogs in north-east Cheshire and the [[River Mersey|Mersey basin]] that formed in hollows caused by melting ice.<ref>{{Harvnb|Turner|1995a|p=10}}</ref> Investigations have not yet discovered settlement or agricultural activity around the edge of Lindow Moss that would have been contemporary with Lindow Man, but analysis of pollen in the peat suggests there was some cultivation in the vicinity.<ref>{{Harvnb|Turner|1995a|p=17}}</ref>

Once covering over {{convert|600|ha|acre}}, the bog has now shrunk to a tenth of its original size. It is a dangerous place and an 18th-century writer recorded people drowning there. For centuries, the peat from the bog was used as fuel, and it continued to be extracted until the 1980s, by which time the process had been mechanised.<ref name="Brothwell13">{{Harvnb|Brothwell|1986|p=13}}</ref> Lindow Moss is a [[Bog#Raised bog|lowland raised mire]], a type of peat bog which often produces the best-preserved bog bodies, allowing more detailed analysis. Lowland raised mires occur mainly in northern England and extend south to the Midlands. Lindow Man is one of 27 bodies to be recovered from such areas.<ref>{{Harvnb|Turner|1995b|p=111}}</ref>

===Preservation of bog bodies===
The preservation of bog bodies is dependent on a set of specific physical conditions, which can occur in peat bogs. A sphagnum moss bog must have a temperature lower than 4&nbsp;°C at the time of deposition of the body. The subsequent average annual temperature must be lower than 10&nbsp;°C. Moisture must be stable in the bog year-round: it cannot dry out.<ref name="Distillations"/>

Sphagnum moss affects the chemistry of nearby water, which becomes highly acidic (a [[pH]] of roughly 3.3 to 4.5) relative to a more ordinary environment. The concentration of dissolved minerals also tends to be low. Dying moss forms layers of sediment and releases sugars and humic acids which consume oxygen. Since the surface of the water is covered by living moss, water becomes anaerobic. As a result, human tissues buried in the bog tend to tan rather than decay.<ref name="Distillations"/>

===Lindow Woman===
{{Main|Lindow Woman}}

On 13 May 1983, two peat workers at Lindow Moss, Andy Mould and Stephen Dooley, noticed an unusual object—about the size of a football—on the elevator taking peat to the shredding machine. They removed the object for closer inspection, joking that it was a dinosaur egg. Once the peat had been removed, their discovery turned out to be a decomposing, incomplete human head with one eye and some hair intact.<ref name="Distillations"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Brothwell|1986|p=11}}</ref>

Forensics identified the skull as belonging to a European woman, probably aged 30–50.<ref>{{Harvnb|Brothwell|1986|pp=11–12}}</ref><ref name="Turner 13">{{Harvnb|Turner|1995a|p=13}}</ref> 
Police initially thought the skull was that of Malika Reyn-Bardt, who had disappeared in 1960 and was the subject of an ongoing investigation.<ref name="Brothwell12">{{Harvnb|Brothwell|1986|p=12}}</ref> While in prison on another charge, her husband, Peter Reyn-Bardt, had boasted that he had killed his wife and buried her in the back garden of their bungalow, which was on the edge of the area of mossland where peat was being dug. The garden had been examined but no body was found. When Reyn-Bardt was confronted with the discovery of the skull from Lindow Moss, he confessed to the murder of his wife.<ref name="Distillations"/><ref name="Turner 13"/>

The skull was later [[radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon dated]], revealing it to be nearly 2,000&nbsp;years old. "Lindow Woman", as it became known, dated from around 210&nbsp;AD.<ref name="Brothwell12"/> This emerged shortly before Reyn-Bardt went to trial, but he was convicted on the evidence of his confession.<ref name="Distillations"/><ref name="Turner 13"/>