In 1984, peat cutters in a Cheshire bog pulled up a human leg.
When archaeologists investigated, they found the rest of him — a man dead for roughly 2,000 years, preserved almost perfectly by the acidic peat.
His skin, hair, and internal organs survive.
His last meal — burnt flatbread — was still in his stomach.
He did not die peacefully — struck twice on the head, strangled with a cord, and then had his throat cut, what archaeologists call the triple death.
His trimmed fingernails and well-fed body told their own story: this was not the execution of a criminal, but a ritual sacrifice.
Fun fact: scientists nicknamed him Pete Marsh — a pun on peat marsh.
He was between 25 and 30 years old when he died, and his bones suggest he came from a relatively high-status background.
