Elling Woman

After 1978 (see note below).

Elling Woman

1. (archaeology) A bog body found preserved in peat on the Jutland peninsula, Denmark, in 1938; the naturally mummified body of a woman believed to have died approximately 280 BCE, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the pre-Roman Iron Age.
   • 1996, D. Brothwell, “European bog bodies: current state of research and preservation”, in Konrad Spindler, Harald Wilfing, Elisabeth Rastbichler-Zissernig, Dieter ZurNedden, Hans Nothdurfter, editors, Human Mummies, Springer, page 169:

     The Elling woman from the same large bog as Tollund man, and similarly hanged, had long plaited hair which had presented problems to the executioner, who had wound it up and round itself to remove its contact with the rope.

   • 2009, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Frommer's Denmark, Wiley, page 356:

     Sleeping near the Tollund Man for centuries is the Elling Woman, whose body was discovered in 1938 about 60m (200 ft.) from where the Tollund Man was later discovered.

   • 2016, Dennis William Harding, Death and Burial in Iron Age Britain, Oxford University Press, page 216:

     Elling Woman from Denmark was also hanged with a leather belt that left a deep scar around her throat.

• The body was not established to be female until it was reexamined via radiography in 1978; the examination also confirmed the original estimate of her age at death as 25 years. In his 1965 book Mosefolket (translated into English and published in 1969 as The Bog People), Danish archaeologist P. V. Glob mistakenly described the body as that of a man.
• In 1950, the Tollund Man was discovered just 60 metres from the site of the Elling Woman's discovery. Both are believed to have been hanged in ritual sacrifice.

• Tollund Man