Iron Age man leaves museum 'home'

Lindow Man was found in a Cheshire marsh in 1984, nearly 2,000 years after his horrific death.

Chemicals in the bog preserved the body and researchers found his throat was slit and he was garrotted, possibly as a sacrificial victim.

Lindow Man is being moved from London to the Manchester Museum, on long-term loan, and will be displayed from April.

He was found on Lindow Moss near Wilmslow and is the best preserved body of its era in the UK.

Study of the remains by scientists has improved knowledge of Iron Age activities and made it possible to see the face of a person from the prehistoric past.

Last meal

The man, who died when he was about 25, has a distinctive furrowed brow with close-cropped hair and a beard.

Scientists discovered his last meal was a piece of unleavened bread.

He has been on display in the Manchester Museum twice before, in 1987 and 1991.

Lindow Man will be exhibited in a specially-designed space as part of the British Museum's Partnership scheme, which enables people from around the UK to see its collection.

Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said: "It is a major undertaking to transport Lindow Man to Manchester for obvious conservation reasons, but I am delighted that people in the north-west of England will once again have the opportunity to meet this everyman of pre-historic Britain at the Manchester Museum."

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British Museum
Manchester Museum
Life in an Iron Age village
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