Editing Lindow Man (section)

==Hypothesis==
Archaeologist [[Don Brothwell]] considered that many of the older bodies need re-examining with modern techniques, such as those used in the analysis of Lindow Man. The study of bog bodies, including those found in Lindow Moss, has contributed to a wider understanding of well-preserved human remains, helping to develop new methods of analysis and investigation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Brothwell|1995|pp=100–101}}</ref> The use of sophisticated techniques, such as [[X-ray computed tomography|computed tomography (CT) scans]], has marked the investigation of the Lindow bodies as particularly important. Such scans allow the reconstruction of the body and internal examination.<ref name="Brothwell 1995 101"/> Of the 27&nbsp;bodies recovered from lowland raised mires in England and Wales, only those from Lindow Moss and the remains of [[Worsley Man]] have survived, together with a shoe from another body. The remains have a date range from the early 1st to the 4th&nbsp;centuries. Investigation into the other bodies relies on contemporary descriptions of the discovery.<ref>{{Harvnb|Turner|1995b|pp=111, 114–115}}</ref>

The physical evidence allows a general reconstruction of how Lindow Man was killed, although some details are debated, but it does not explain why he was killed.<ref>{{Harvnb|Joy|2009|p=55}}</ref> In North West England, there is little evidence for religious or ritual activity in the Iron Age period. What evidence does survive is usually in the form of artefacts recovered from peat bogs.<ref name="HB 55-56">{{Harvnb|Hodgson|Brennand|2006|pp=55–56}}</ref> Late Iron Age burials in the region often took the form of a crouched [[inhumation]], sometimes with personal ornaments. Although dated to the mid-1st century&nbsp;AD, the type of burial of Lindow Man was more common in the pre-historic period.<ref name="Philpott 79">{{Harvnb|Philpott|2006|p=79}}</ref> In the latter half of the 20th&nbsp;century, scholars widely believed that bog bodies demonstrating injuries to the neck or head area were examples of ritual sacrifice. Bog bodies were associated with Germanic and Celtic cultures, specifically related to head worship.<ref>{{Harvnb|Briggs|1995|p=162}}</ref>

According to Brothwell, Lindow Man is one of the most complex examples of "[[Overkill (term)|overkill]]" in a bog body, and possibly has ritual meaning as it was "extravagant" for a straightforward murder.<ref>{{Harvnb|Brothwell|1986|pp=28–29}}</ref> Archaeologists John Hodgson and Mark Brennand suggest that bog bodies may have been related to religious practice, although there is division in the academic community over this issue.<ref name="HB 55-56"/> In the case of Lindow Man, scholars debate whether the killing was murder or done as part of ritual.<ref name="Philpott 79"/> [[Anne Ross (scholar)|Anne Ross]], an expert on Iron Age religion, proposed that the death was an example of human sacrifice and that the "[[threefold death|triple death]]" (throat cut, strangled, and hit on the head) was an offering to several different gods.<ref>{{Harvnb|Joy|2009|p=45}}</ref> The wide date range for Lindow Man's death (2&nbsp;BC to 119&nbsp;AD) means he may have met his demise after the Romans conquered northern England in the 60s&nbsp;AD. As the Romans outlawed human sacrifice, such timing would open up other possibilities.<ref name="Joy 23"/> This conclusion was emphasised by historian Ronald Hutton, who challenged the interpretation of sacrificial death.<ref>{{Harvnb|Joy|2009|p=48}}</ref> Connolly suggests that as Lindow Man was found naked, he could have been the victim of a violent robbery.<ref name="Connolly 17"/><ref name="Joy 44"/>

Joy said

<blockquote>The jury really is still out on these bodies, whether they were aristocrats, priests, criminals, outsiders, whether they went willingly to their deaths or whether they were executed – but Lindow was a very remote place in those days, an unlikely place for an ambush or a murder<ref name="Guardian"/></blockquote>

According to Anne Ross, a scholar of Celtic history and Don Robins, a chemist at the [[University of London]], Lindow Man was likely a sacrifice victim of extraordinary importance. They identified his stomach contents as including the undigested remains of a partially burned barley griddle cake of a kind used by the ancient Celts to select victims for sacrifice. Such cakes were torn into fragments and placed in a sack, after which all candidates for sacrifice would withdraw a piece, with the one withdrawing the burnt piece being the one who would be sacrificed. They argued that Lindow Man was likely a high-ranking [[Druid]] who was sacrificed in a last-ditch effort to call upon the aid of three Celtic gods to stop a Roman offensive against the Celts in AD 60.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Browne|first=Malcome W.|date=1990-06-17|title=BACK FROM THE BOG (Published 1990)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/17/books/back-from-the-bog.html|access-date=2020-11-01|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>