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blackbird
Warrior
Posts: 57
Registered: Jan 2004 |
 Posted March 26th, 2004 09:10 AM IP   
I must confess to never really having swallowed all that triple death stuff regarding Lindow Man... and I know that people have thought for a while that his garotte was actually a shrunken necklace.
I've always been a fan of Anne Ross, but was a bit less than impressed by her 'Life and Death of a Druid Prince' book, which basically sets out the (very speculative) theory that Lindow Man was the aforementioned Druid Prince...
Anyway, here's a link to the following article from The Times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspa...1046522,00.html
Lindow Man 'was a simple murder victim'
By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
LINDOW MAN, whose 2,000-year-old body was found in a peat bog in Cheshire, was the victim of a simple murder and not a ritual sacrifice, according to two academics.
They say that the British Museum should remove the preserved body from its galleries and erase him from the history books.
The museum describes Lindow Man as a 25-year-old man who met an horrific and drawn-out death. His skull was smashed by blows from a heavy object, he was strangled with a cord and his throat was cut. He was allowed to bleed for a time before being placed face down in a pond in the bog.
But any suggestion of ritual murder is dismissed by Robert Connolly, senior lecturer in physical anthropology at the University of Liverpool, and Ronald Hutton, professor of history at the University of Bristol and the author of Witches, Druids and King Arthur.
Mr Connolly believes that the man may have been murdered in a violent attack. “This isn’t an elaborate death,” he said. “He was clubbed to death. A small group of people believe it was a ritual killing, but it makes a better story. With respect to my archaeology colleagues, they like ritual sacrifices. The museum and several other people just want it to be a ritual sacrifice.”
The two men say that many of the wounds could have been inflicted during peat-cutting activities or from the man having been trampled by a horse.
They argue that Lindow Man’s throat cartilage shows no sign of the trauma associated with strangulation and that the decorative necklace, being made of animal sinew, probably shrank in the wet so that it looks like a garrotte.
Mr Connolly said: “We do not have evidence from this body of ritual sacrifice in Iron Age Cheshire. We musn’t write it into the books until we have evidence. That is disrupting history. That is not historical evidence. It wouldn’t stand up in court.”
Lindow Man was found in 1984 when workers cutting peat to be used in gardens discovered a leg. The acidic, oxygen-free conditions in the bog slowed down the rate at which the body decayed.
The dispute flared up this month in The Times Literary Supplement. Defending the museum’s position, J. D. Hill, an Iron Age curator, wrote that their interpretation was based on an assessment by Iain West, the forensic science pathologist, before his death in 2001.
Dr Hill maintains that Lindow Man was strangled: “There was a loop of sinew around his neck, tied with an unusual series of knots, which was extremely tight around his neck and left a well- defined mark on the front and sides of his throat. If this had been worn as an ornament in life, it would have been very tight. It was more probably used as a garrotte.”
Lindow Man will remain on display at the British Museum. Dr Hill said: “Even if the interpretation of a ritual killing is wrong, he’s the best-preserved Prehistoric or Roman Britain there is. He’s an Everyman from Britain’s past. That’s why people find him so fascinating.”
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Siwsan
Hero
Posts: 147
Registered: Mar 2004 |
Posted March 29th, 2004 08:35 AM IP
Interesting. I read the 'Life and Death of a Druid Prince' right after it was published some 13-14 years ago, and though I can't remember exactly what it was that set off the warning bells, I do remember thinking at the time that it was badly written bunk. Poorly researched and purely speculative, but presented as fact. Frankly, it made me angry. It came off sounding like it was written by a couple of Celtic-"Magick"-it's-cool-to-be-a-Druid nuts that only end up giving those of us who are serious scholars of the period a bad name.
It's nice to see that someone in "scholarly authority" has finally challenged the ritual murder theory, though the idea that the body should be removed from the British Museum's galleries is taken things a bit far. It's still an important scientific find, regardless of which theory you believe.
Blackbird, you say you're a fan of Anne Ross. The Druid Prince book was the first and only book of hers that I've read, and as a consequence I've steered clear of everything else she's put her name to. Would you say her other books are more academically sound?
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blackbird
Warrior
Posts: 57
Registered: Jan 2004 |
Posted March 31st, 2004 02:17 AM IP
Back when her other books were first published, yes. I'm re-reading Pagan Celtic Britain at the moment (pub 1967, I think) and enjoying it again. However, while it was 'academically sound' back then, of course, things have moved on in the last 40 odd years. So these days, I wouldn't recommend her books to a beginner, but they are still of worth to people who are more aware of the general direction of more recent scholarship.
Actually, until the Druid Prince book, she wasn't flakey at all... she's a well respected academic and for many years, she was probably the most accessible and reliable author on the pagan Celts. But for some reason, she just lost the plot on that one... in Pagan Celtic Britain, she actually dismisses the mysteries of the Druids in about two paragraphs, so I've got no idea how she ended up writing such a bizarre mixture of speculation and fantasy...
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AXE & OAK :: Celtic Trad/Recon :: Brythonic Main :: Lindow Man was a simple murder victim... |
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