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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Pain was sharp but short for ancient ‘bog body’ victims

Methods that would minimize suffering were chosen to kill people found in peat bogs.
The preserved head and shoulders of the Tollund man

Tollund Man, who lived 2,200–2,400 years ago in what is now Denmark, died after being hung or strangled. He would have lost consciousness within 15 seconds. Credit: Richard Ashworth/Robert Harding/Getty

Prehistoric people discovered in European peat bogs often show signs of horrifically violent deaths: marks on their bodies indicate that they were strangled, hanged, stabbed or beheaded. Their final moments were exceptionally brutal — or so researchers thought.

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Nature 566, 298 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00534-x

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