* 1984 – Commercial peat-cutters discover the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, northwest England

Lindow Man, also known as Lindow II and ( in jest ) as Pete Marsh, is the preserved bog body of a man discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss near Wilmslow in Cheshire, North West England.

Dating the body has proven problematic, but it is thought that Lindow Man was deposited into Lindow Moss, face down, some time between 2 BC and 119 AD, in either the Iron Age or Romano-British period.

Lindow Moss () is a peat bog in Mobberley, Cheshire, which has been used as common land since the medieval period.

Investigations have not yet discovered settlement or agricultural activity around the edge of Lindow Moss that would have been contemporary with Lindow Man ; however, analysis of pollen in the peat suggests there was some cultivation in the vicinity.

On 13 May 1983, two peat workers at Lindow Moss, Andy Mould and Stephen Dooley, noticed an unusual object — about the size of a football — on the elevator taking peat to the shredding machine.

When Reyn-Bardt was confronted with the discovery of the skull from Lindow Moss, he confessed to the murder of his wife.

The area of Lindow Moss where Lindow Man was discovered

A year later a further macabre discovery was made at Lindow Moss, just south-west of the Lindow Woman.

After the discovery of Lindow Man, there were no further archaeological excavations at Lindow Moss until 1987.

Prior to the discovery of the bodies in Lindow Moss, British bog bodies had been a relatively neglected subject compared to European examples.

While some preserved human remains may contain DNA, peat bogs such as Lindow Moss are generally poor for such a purpose, and it is unlikely that DNA could be recovered from Lindow Man.

Geographer K. E. Barber has argued against this hypothesis, saying that pools at Lindow Moss would have been too shallow, and suggests that the peat may have been peeled back to allow the burial and then replaced, leaving the stratigraphy apparently undisturbed.

One of the conclusions of the study was that the people buried in Lindow Moss may have had a less varied diet than their European counterparts.

After death, Lindow Man was deposited into Lindow Moss face down.

John Lindow says that it is unclear why the gods decide to raise Fenrir as opposed to his siblings Hel and Jörmungandr in Gylfaginning chapter 35, theorizing that it may be " because Odin had a connection with wolves?

John Lindow states that most details about Hel, as a figure, are not found outside of Snorri's writing in Gylfaginning, and says that when older skaldic poetry " says that people are ' in ' rather than ' with ' Hel, we are clearly dealing with a place rather than a person, and this is assumed to be the older conception ," that the noun and place Hel likely originally simply meant " grave ," and that " the personification came later.

Lindow Man is not the only bog body to have been found in the moss ; Lindow Woman was discovered the year before, and other body parts have also been recovered.

Lindow Man is one of 27 bodies to be recovered from such areas.

Lindow Man's official name is Lindow II, as there are other finds from the area: Lindow I ( Lindow Woman ) refers to a human skull, Lindow III to a " fragmented headless body ", and Lindow IV to the upper thigh of an adult male, possibly that of Lindow Man.

The close proximity of the discovery sites, coupled with the fact that the remains were shown to come from an adult male, means that Lindow IV is probably part of Lindow Man.

Dating Lindow Man is problematic as samples from the body and surrounding peat have produced dates spanning a 900-year period.

In some interpretations of Lindow Man's death, the sinew is a garrotte used to break Lindow Man's neck.

Of the 27 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.

There has been debate over the reason for Lindow Man's death, for the nature of his demise was violent, perhaps ritualistic ; after a last meal of charred bread, Lindow Man was strangled, hit on the head, and his throat cut.

The discovery of Lindow Man marked the first well-preserved bog body discovered in Britain ; its condition was comparable to that of Grauballe Man and Tollund Man from Denmark.

The interest caused by Lindow Man led to more in-depth research of accounts of discoveries in bogs since the 17th century ; by 1995, the numbers had changed to 106 in England and Wales and 34 in Scotland.

Lindow continues that " his use of Sleipnir in the kenning may show that Sleipnir's role in the failed recovery of Baldr was known at that time and place in Iceland ; it certainly indicates that Sleipnir was an active participant in the mythology of the last decades of paganism.

Scholar John Lindow proposes that a potentially understated mythological importance of Sif's role in the story of her sheared hair exists ; her headpiece is created along with the most important and powerful items in Norse mythology.

In Hervarar saga, the dísablót is also held in autumn, and is performed by a woman, the daughter of King Álfr of Álfheim, who " reddens the hörgr with sacrifices and is subsequently rescued by the god Thor after she has been abducted ; John Lindow suggests that the passage depicts a model of heathen behaviour.

In about 1911, an adult male skull was found in the moss ; it was thought to belong to the Romano-British period – similar to the Lindow Man bog body – until radiocarbon dating revealed that it dated from 1, 320 – 970 BC.

They even preserve human bodies for millennia ; examples of these preserved specimens are Tollund Man, Haraldskær Woman, Clonycavan Man and Lindow Man.

According to John Lindow, Andy Orchard, and Rudolf Simek connections are commonly drawn between the Harii and the Einherjar of Norse mythology ; those that have died and gone to Valhalla ruled over by the god Odin, preparing for the events of Ragnarök.

Although dated to the mid-1st century AD, the type of burial of Lindow Man was more common in the pre-historic period.

As a result of decalcification of the bones and pressure from the peat Lindow Man was buried under, his skull was distorted.

Although the peat encasing Lindow Man has been radiocarbon dated to about 300 BC, Lindow Man himself has a different date.

Archaeologist P. C. Buckland suggests that as the stratigraphy of the peat appears undisturbed, Lindow Man may have been deposited into a pool which was some 300 years old at the time.

As the peat was cleaned off the body in the laboratory, it became clear that Lindow Man had suffered a violent death.

It was feared that once Lindow Man was removed from the peat which had preserved him for nearly 2, 000 years, the body would start to decay.

Preserved in the peat bogs for 2000 years, Lindow Man is one of the most important Iron Age finds in the country.

Before Lindow Man, it was estimated that 41 bog bodies had been found in England and Wales and 15 in Scotland.

Encouraged by the discovery of Lindow Man, a gazetteer was compiled and revealed a far higher number of bog bodies: over 85 in England and Wales and over 36 in Scotland.

The study of bog bodies, including these found in Lindow Moss, have contributed to a wider understanding of well-preserved human remains, helping to develop new methods in analysis and investigation.

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 and in the case of Lindow Man, whether the killing was murder or ritualistic is still debated.

Some of the most notable examples of bog bodies include Tollund Man and Grauballe Man from Denmark and Lindow Man from England.