July 11, 2006
The Life and Death of a Druid Prince: The Story of Lindow Man, An Archaeological Sensation
by Anne Ross and Don Robins
This is a fascinating book! It's a quicker read than one might expect from a book on archaeology because it blends plenty of speculation and extrapolation with accounts of test results and fact-finding. The man of the title is a body found in a peat bog. Testing shows him to have died two thousand years ago, and the more the archaeologists study his remains, the more fascinating things they discover. He was killed ritually - axe blows to the head, garrotted, and his throat was cut to let the blood out of his body. Then he was heaved into a pool of water in a peat bog.
More intriguing is the fact that he is unscarred. he lived during the wars between the Celts and Romans, and never saw battle even though he was 30. He also has fine, well-kept hands. The authors put all of this in context, and the result is a sort of murder mystery.
This is a nonfiction book, but it almost reads like a novel. Fascinating stuff. Also, a must-read if you have a "sweetness and light" mental picture of the Celts. Hoo boy, they were some barbaric folks.
File under: NonFiction
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