Gallagh Man

Common card · No. 399524

Gallagh Man is the name given to a preserved Iron Age bog body found in County Galway, Ireland, in 1821. The remains date to c. 470–120 BC, and are of a six-foot (1.8 m) tall, healthy male with dark and reddish hair, who is estimated to have been about 25 years old at the time of death. The presence of a withy hoop – rope made from twisted willow twigs – found wrapped around his throat indicates that he was strangled during a ritual killing or executed as a criminal. Gallagh Man was found buried in a ten-foot (3.0 m) deep grave in a peat bog, dressed in a long leather mantle, and pinned down by two long wooden stakes. His teeth and hair were almost fully preserved, and even though the body is severely dehydrated and thus shrivelled, it has suffered from little shrinkage and is overall exceptionally well-preserved.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0