Here you can check out the amazingly well-preserved body of the 2400-year-old Tollund Man, the central (albeit leathery) star in an otherwise smart but predictable collection. The well-preserved face of the Tollund Man is hypnotic in its detail, right down to the stubble on his chin. Like the Grauballe Man at Aarhus’ Moesgaard Museum, the life (and death) of the Tollund Man remains a mystery.
His intact remains were found on the outskirts of Silkeborg in 1950, and have been radiocarbon dated to around the 4th century BC. The autopsy suggests he had been hanged, yet he was placed as though lying asleep with only a leather hat over his face and a thin leather noose around his neck. Was he an executed prisoner, or a sacrifice to the gods? That’s the big unanswered question, but the accompanying displays aren’t as engrossing as those at Moesgaard.
