The Tollund Man is a naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 5th century BCE, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was found in 1950, preserved as a bog body, near Silkeborg on the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. The man's physical features were so well preserved that he was mistaken for a recent murder victim. Twelve years before his discovery, another bog body, Elling Woman, was found in the same bog.
The Tollund Man's preserved head
The remains of the Tollund Man shortly after his discovery in 1950.
The Tollund Man on display at Silkeborg Museum
Image: Tollundmannen
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay further if kept in cool and dry conditions. Some authorities restrict the use of the term to bodies deliberately embalmed with chemicals, but the use of the word to cover accidentally desiccated bodies goes back to at least the early 17th century.
A mummified man likely to be Ramesses I
Howard Carter examining the innermost coffin of Tutankhamun
A 550-year-old Peruvian child mummy being prepared for a CT scan
Mummy in the British Museum