A person who was killed for human sacrifice over 2000 years ago is 'perfectly preserved' due to an incredible feat of nature.
The waxwork-esque body may look like a macabre mannequin, but it is actually real-life corpse.
Discovered by two brothers digging in a peat bog in the Danish town of Silkeborg in the 1950s, the corpse now nicknamed the 'Tollund Man' was thought to have been a recent murder victim at first glance, reports the Mirror.
But when detectives noticed the bog had been undisturbed, the case was passed onto museum experts who found the man had been dead a bit longer than initially suspected – 2,330 years longer, to be precise.
Due to the lack of oxygen in peat bogs, organic matter is prevented from properly decaying. As a result, the man's facial features have miraculously been kept intact to the extent you can even make out his beard stubble.
The Tollund Man is today kept behind glass at the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, providing the public with an extremely rare glimpse back to the Iron Age, centuries before even the Roman Empire came into existence.
Now scientists been able to accurately determine what the Tollund man's last meal would have been using advanced modern-day technology analysing chemical compounds in his digestive organs.
While tests on his intestines at the time showed he had eaten a meal of porridge shortly before his death, analysis has now been able to determine exactly what his bowl of gruel would have comprised of – a mix of barley, weeds, flax and seeds.
“Back in 1950, they only looked at the well preserved grains and seeds, and not the very fine fraction of the material,” Nina Helt Nielsen from Silkeborg Musem told NBC News.
“But now we have better microscopes, better ways of analysing the material and new techniques. So that means that we could get more information out of it.”
Even more remarkably, the scientists have also been able to determine Tollund Man was infected with three different kinds of parasites at the time, including tapeworm, probably due to fewer hygiene and sanitation measures.
The exact reason for his death however, may forever remain a mystery. Archaeologists have said the noose around his neck indicates he was likely a victim of sacrifice, perhaps to ensure fertility.
"Our interpretation of Tollund Man was that he was ritually sacrificed," Nina added.
"At this time in the Iron Age, it was common to use wetlands for ritual activities."
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