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ProudOfUs
Classroom Resource
KS3 · KS4 History
Age 11+

The Lindow Man & Iron Age Britain

A 2,000-year-old British man, and what his body told us that Rome did not.

Name
Class
Date
In 1984, a peat worker pulled what looked like a leather football out of the bog at Lindow Moss in Cheshire. It was a man's head. He had been killed roughly 2,000 years before. His face, hair and stomach were still intact. He was killed four ways: a blow to the head, a garrote, a knife, a drowning. His last meal was a charred griddle cake and mistletoe, the most sacred plant in Druid religion. He had been chosen, honoured, and offered. His body lay in the peat until we were ready to read him.

1Timeline. Lindow Man's story

c. 50 AD
Lindow Man is killed and offered to the bog
43 AD
Roman invasion of Britain begins
1 Aug 1984
Andy Mould pulls his head from the peat
1986
British Museum publishes the first study
Today
On display, Room 50, British Museum

2How he was killed. Four causes, in order.

1. The blow
What the evidence shows:
2. The garrote
What the evidence shows:
3. The knife
What the evidence shows:
4. The drowning
What the evidence shows:

3Quiz. What do you know?

  1. In what year was Lindow Man found?
  2. Where exactly was he found, county and place name?
  3. How many ways was he killed?
  4. What plant, sacred to the Druids, was found in his stomach?
  5. Where can you visit him today, museum and room number?

4Reflection

Rome wrote them down. The peat kept them.

Roman writers described pre-Roman Britons as savage. Lindow Man's body says otherwise. Tailored clothes, kept hair, trimmed beard, polished nails, an organised religion. Why might Rome have wanted to portray Britons that way? What does that tell you about how to read history written by the side that won?