Where is lindow man now

The people of Manchester and north-west England became very attached to the Iron Age man and launched a campaign with special song and T-shirt to keep him in the city. But he has come north for a year's stay at the Manchester Museum on the campus of Manchester University.

The school parties are already pouring in. Lindow Man was in his mids when he died. He was 1. In his stomach were traces of wheat bread, heather, sphagnum moss and a small amount of mistletoe pollen. His death was not pleasant. A thong of animal sinew was round his neck, his throat was slashed and his head bashed in. He wore nothing but a fox-skin armband and his moustache had been trimmed with shears. His elegant finger nails suggested he could have had a privileged work-free existence before his death.

But what was his death? Summary execution? He says what followed were "the most exciting days of my archaeological career". On 6 August, the site was recorded and sampled, the limits of the remains were established and "Lindow Man was lifted - within his block of surrounding peat - on his way to international celebrity", Mr Turner says. A spokeswoman for the British Museum, where the body is kept, says it was "one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the s [which] caused a media sensation".

As Mr Turner puts it, "bog bodies always have produced a remarkable response in those lucky enough to find them and those who see them preserved in museums". He said interest in the bodies came from the fact they "appear to have cheated death [to] give us a remarkable insight into our late prehistoric past".

Examinations of Lindow Man showed he was in his 20s, of average height, well-built and in good health. Closer inspections have shown he suffered from intestinal parasites and his last meal was unleavened bread. Radiocarbon dating has put his death, which was extremely violent, as being sometime in the 1st Century AD.

Despite so much being learnt, according to the University of Manchester's Professor Anthony Jones, who has led a walk across Lindow Moss to mark the 30th anniversary of Lindow Man's disinterment, there are still questions to be answered. Theories about his demise have formed the backbone for several exhibitions, though the most recent one - at Manchester Museum in - took a different view.

Lindow Man's life. Source: British Museum. Bryan Sitch, the museum's curator of archaeology, says Lindow Man was "deliberately divorced from interpretation [with] visitors encouraged to make up their own minds from the information available". He says the exhibition included "the personal testimony of a forensic scientist, a landscape archaeologist, two museum curators, a former peat worker, a resident of the Lindow community and a Pagan [to show] the wide variety of meanings and interpretations".

As a result, alongside a selection of Iron Age artefacts, the museum displayed laboratory equipment used to study of an ancient body, spades used to dig up peat, personal memorabilia about the unsuccessful Lindow Man repatriation campaign of the s and a wand used in a pagan ceremony. Lindow Man could also have been the victim of a violent crime or an executed criminal. Why did Lindow Man last so long in the bog? He conditions in peat bogs mean that bog bodies such as Lindow Man have been well preserved.

Bogs are cold, acidic places lacking in oxygen, which makes them hostile environments for micro-organisms that break bodies down. Sphagnum mosses that grow in bogs also help preserve bog bodies. When the mosses die, they release a sugary substance that acts as a tanning agent. This turns skin, tendons, ligaments and muscle into leather.

It also turns skin brown and hair red. How has Lindow Man been conserved? Scientists at the British Museum had to find a suitable way of preserving Lindow Man. They wanted to prevent his remains from decaying after he had been removed from the bog. Lindow Man was first immersed in a solution of polyethylene glycol, a chemical that prevented the body shrinking when it dried out.

He was then wrapped in cling film and frozen after which he was freeze-dried to remove water. This treatment successfully preserved his body and meant that it could be displayed.

What do we know about Lindow Man? Naked except for a fox-fur armband, he was 1.