Post by Fool Coyote on Apr 2, 2008 6:08:15 GMT -5
THE discovery of 2,000 year old human remains at Lindow Peat Bog more than 20 years ago sent shock waves through the Wilmslow community and sparked a murder hunt.
A year later archaeologists swarmed to the peat farm to examine the relics of an iron age man whose well preserved body lay buried there for centuries.
Lindow man, as he later became known, went on to become a national treasure at the British Museum.
And for the past 20 years historians, archaeologists and mystics have all had their say on the gruesome discovery.
Now, it is time for the public of Wilmslow to pitch in with their our own thoughts and reflections about their infamous son.
As Lindow Man returns to Manchester Museum for the third time curators want to hear the views of local people about the find, where they were and how they remember the story unfolding.
A spokesman eagerly awaiting the exhibition due to start in April next year said: "We will not be telling one story but looking at Lindow Man from many different perspectives. We are very interested, for example, in gathering evidence of how Lindow Man is important to the local community.
"The museum's own working practices place emphasis on being open about what we do and on consulting widely.
"We would be very interested to hear from members of the public who have particular memories about Lindow Man, either because they live near the site where he was found or because they remember coming to see him on display at The Manchester Museum and the impression he made on them or for some other reason.
"We are particularly interested to reflect a range of different points of view in our interpretation of the body including those of archaeologists, museum curators, the city, special interest groups, pagans, as well as members of the public."
Public consultation prior to the exhibition is already underway and should rekindle memories of 1983 when the story began to unfold with the discovery of the severed head of a woman by commercial peat cutters operating near the ancient bog.
Police were called in and inquiries led a Wimslow man to confess to the murder of his wife. She had vanished near the bog some 20 years earlier and he had never quite convinced police he was innocent.
Confronted with what appeared to be the grisly evidence of his crime the man immediately confessed but the skull turned out to be that of a woman at least 1700 years older. A year later, a leg was found and the report led to the visit of archaeologists who quickly found a flap of skin emerging from a recently excavated section of peat.
The flap was part of the extremely well-preserved body of an Iron-Age man who was painstakingly removed under the spotlight of international media coverage.
Research showed Lindow Man, also affectionately known as Lindow Pete, had been a healthy young man who had been murdered with savage ferocity.
First, he had been bludgeoned three times, probably with an axe. Then, he was garrotted. The axe blows or the garrot alone would have killed him, but, at the point of death, someone also plunged a long thin blade deep into his throat, probably to rapidly exsanguinate the body before he was symbolically drowned.
His body was freeze dried and has since been on display in the British Museum for all to see.
The temporary exhibition at Manchester Museum will run from April 2008 to March 2009. Anyone who wants to share thoughts and memories of Lindow Pete should make contact before February 10 either by email at museum@manchester.ac.uk or write to Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL
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