The Tollund Man

Those of you who are interested in the study of "bog bodies" and the history and religious rituals behind such theme, the Tollund Man is definitely one of the most interesting archaeological findings on this matter.

The Tollund Man ,as it was named, is the naturally mummified body of a man who lived during the 4th century b.C., during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was hanged as a sacrifice to the gods and placed in a peat bog where he remained preserved for more than two millennia. Today, the face of the Tollund Man is as preserved as the day he died. The look upon his face is calm and peaceful, as though looking upon a sleeping man.

It was the 6th of May, of the year 1950, when two brothers cutting peat in the Bjaeldskov bog, an area about 10 kilometres west of the Danish town of Silkeborg, came upon the lifeless body of a man. The man's physical features were so well-preserved that he was mistaken at the time of discovery for a recent murder victim and the police was called. Puzzled by the appearance of the remains and recalling the discovery of two other ‘bog bodies’ in the same bog in 1927 and 1938, the police asked an archaeologist named P. V. Glob to come and view the discovery. Recognizing that this was an ancient burial, Glob began efforts to remove the body for further study.

The examination of the Tollund Man at the National Museum of Denmark in 1950 revealed an unusually well-preserved body of an adult male who was slightly over five feet tall and approximately 40 years old when he died. The stubble on his chain, eyelashes, and the wrinkles in his skin can still be observed in minute detail. His last meal was porridge made from 40 different kinds of seeds and grains.

The Tollund Man was naked apart from a leather cap and a wide belt around his waist. Around his neck was a braided leather rope tightened in a noose.  It was clear that he had been hanged, but why? Was he a criminal, a victim of crime, or part of a ritual sacrifice? Archaeologists embarked on an investigation to find out.

Like all the other "bog bodies" that have been found, the Tollund Man showed no signs of injury or trauma, apart from that caused by the hanging. It was clear that he had also been buried carefully in the bog , his eyes and mouth had been closed and his body placed in a sleeping position, something that wouldn’t have happened if he was a common criminal.

When someone died in the Iron Age, the body was cremated in a funeral pyre and the ashes placed in an urn, but the Tolland Man was buried in a watery place where the early people of Europe believed they could communicate with their many gods and goddesses. He was also killed in the winter or early spring, a time that human sacrifices were made to the goddess of spring.

Taking into account all of these factors, archaeologists believe that the Tollund Man was ritually sacrificed. He may have been an offering to the gods in return for peat that was taken from the bog. The incredible discovery of Tollund Man has brought to life in vivid detail the lives and deaths of the people of prehistoric Denmark. He now resides in a special room of the Silkeborg Museum.

The Megalithic Phenomenon

Some authors though that the megalithic phenomenon had started in Portugal before it went to the other mediterranean countries and to the north of Europe, however, recente studies have shown that this phenomenon arose spontaneously in various regions of the globe. These megalithic monuments go all the way from south Sweden, to Corsica and Sardinia, going to the Brithish islands and Irland, back again to Denmark, France, Spain and Portugal, but there are also monuments like these, found along the African coasts, Asia and America. In Europe there are more or less 50.000 dolmens and menhirs, that have escaped to the destruction by the hand of man, either to make walls for houses or walls to enclose the fields for agriculture of each farmer and ruined by pillaging and looting, but the biggest threa of all, was bu christian hands, trying to clean these ancient pagan sites which were still in use by many cultures of Europe, even after thousands of years. We know for a fact that the number of megaliths in the christianized countries was twice that which is today.

The megalithic extension goes from Dhaka in the Asian continent, where we can find a big concentration of these monuments, more or less 2.200 dolmens, also in Pendjab, oriental Pakistan and Ceylon, in Africa, na extension covering the Maghreb region and the northern parts of Algeria and Tunisia and to the south, Ethiopia, and of course coming to Europe.

These monuments are surprising by their greatness and the perfection of its execution, despite the great difficulties of building these megalithic complexes in an era so remote with few or almost nonexistent construction utensils.

It seems strange to declare that this megalithic phenomenon spread to other countries by sea, however, it is true that we can see those in America, or in islands of the Iberian Peninsula, and the most famous of all islands, Great Britain, so there is this speculation, of navigators going into the oceans, spreading these monuments, but who were they? where did they come from? and what kind of scientific and technical knowledge they had to do such a thing and to lift those gigantic monuments? There is still much speculation about these questions and most of it remains a mystery, however, there is a very good and plausible explanation for how they went to continentes and islands only reached by sea. For example, Great Britain was once part of the European land mass, attached to the Iberian Peninsula, people from Egypt could go on foot from their country passing through the Iberian Peninsula and into Great Britain, without using a single boat, also, when the Ice Age begain,all the North of Europe all the way to the very centre of Portugal and of Spain, was an imense tick icy Wall, a great natural bridge that linked the European continent to the American one, and many people from that era, migrated from one palce to another, going to and from between continentes, so it is also possible that Alaska for example, was still attached to Sibéria.

This will be one of the greatest mysteries of humankind, but we are always working to find the truth, or at least a good explanation for how was it possible for these people, so called primitive, to erect these monuments, that even today is hard to lift with machines, i mean... we have to take into account that, most of these monuments, especially menhirs, far exceed 7 meters in height, and its weight reaches up to or exceeds 100 tons, we must take into account that the transportation and erection of these monuments should not have been a simple job. Quite the contrary, it implied a sophisticated technique and also a considerably  well planed organization to take this outstanding work. The European humans at this time, still lived on a primary stage of social organization and had a technique not evolved enough to allow them to perform these megalithic constructions.
Also we need to think about the fact that most of the stones of these monuments aren't near the quarry where they were previously extracted, for example the dolmen of El soto in Huelva in Spain, one of it's slabs was trasnported from a distance superior to 38 klm (23 miles ), but the most spectacular case is that of the "blue stones" of Stonehenge, these 24 blocks of stone, weighing more than 350 tons, which constitute the second circle of the great monument, were extracted for the Prescelly hills in Wales, and placed on the plain of Salisbury, about 230 klm ( 141 miles ) of its original place. Another amazing fact his the case of the dolmen in Pépieux ( France ) with a slab with more than 30 tons, on top of an isolated Hill, with very inclined slopes. How was it possible to bring such heavy stones up there?

This remains a mystery to be solved. Suffice to say, that these people weren't that primitive as we may think.

Note: The artwork to illustrate this post is a drawing of a sacred mound made by me. If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger

Prehistoric Senses

Have you ever imagine how our ancestors lived when much of Europe was covered with woodlands? No mass buildings made of concrete, nor artificial lights, not even the sounds of mechanized vehicles or the mass population making lots of noises, going to and fro in stress, tension, tedious and grumpy.

Our ancestors experienced a world far different than we do nowadays, when all the land was very much covered by trees and people could only move from one place to another in tracks known to them, clearly marked on the ground by the feet of their own ancestors, or they would travel in open plains, well visible for any predator. Imagine the connections they had with the trees, it wasn't just to get wood for the fires, or to build houses and tools, but also to measure the life progress, seeing how time passed by carving something in the tree trunk, or watching the seasons go by and actually know in which season of the year they were, when the leafs change colour or fall, or when a tree bears fruit. For our ancestors distance wasn't measured by how much time they spent from one place to another and back, hours, minutes, seconds didn't exist, not even kilometers nor miles, they would measure distance by the light of the day, the position of the sun, or when travelling by night to avoid enemies into the deep darkness of the forests, it would be measured by the moon or the stars, distance to them could be a matter of a few steps and the sun going from the horizon up into the sky above them, or a matter of a couple of suns and moons passing in the sky over and over again.

Our ancestors would be far more aware of the passing of seasons by watching the trees changing, the weather, the colours of the clouds and the sky, even the in the fur of foxes, bears and wolves or in the migration of some birds. Most of the life they had and the things they experienced is beyond our understanding nowadays, the sounds they heard when they travelled in the forests, working every sense we possess, and people would relie on their ears and eyes better than we do today.
Going from one place to another, to live or to hunt, depended on the weather, season and time of the day, when the sky was moonless, it would be hard to travel, so they would count on the light of the moon which would enabled them to see, or perhaps their night vision was better than ours, since we are too used to the artificial lights of post lamps. Agriculture was an activity which accompanied the cycle of nature in a well balanced way. All other activities would have their own seasonal time, or would depend very much on the weather, such as the coastal activities, the shifting tides would tell people if the fishing activity would be good or bad depending on the waves, the coastal sounds, the birds and the weather. The rising and the setting of the sun was probably quite relevant for most activities in the Prehistoric times.

We have forgotten much of these times, how to be in a deep contact with nature, almost spiritual like ( probably in those times, spirituality would have been easier to understand, being in constant contact with the divine through nature ), it seems we have also forgotten how to use our own senses, we don't work them the way we should, we relie on what people may tell us through the tv screan rather than trusting our own instincts and senses.

Note: If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger