First Task – Exercise Books

• Name - • Tutor Group – • Subject - History• History Class – 9-Hi-• History Teacher – Mr Johnson• In your exercise books write a paragraph

explaining why you chose to study History at GCSE.– I chose to study History at GCSE because . . .

Rules and Expectations

• Hands Up.• Show respect.

– No talking when I am talking. No talking when others are contributing.

• “Pens Down. Face the Front.”• Try your best.• Homework• One warning

– Name on board (warning)– Tick (breaktime or lunchtime detention)– 2 Ticks (after-school detention)

What you will study this year

History Mysteries

Task

• Write a second paragraph saying which of those topics you are most looking forward to finding out about and why?

Why are you studying these topics?

• To develop your skills in:– Using Evidence– Understanding and explaining bias/reliability– Understanding Causation– Testing interpretations

This body was found in a peat bog on Tollund Fen in Denmark in May 1950. Two men were digging peat for burning. As they worked they suddenly saw in the peat layer a face so fresh they thought they had come across a recent murder.

They called the police. The men carefully removed the peat from the body till more of him could be seen. The man lay on his right side as if he was asleep.

What happened to the Tollund

Man?

L/OTo be able to use evidence to decide how and why the

Tollund Man died

History Mysteries –

Y9

These items were found around the

Tollund Man’s neck. The items are a rope noose and an iron neck

ring. Iron Age people buried

neck rings with their dead as an offering to the

Spring Goddess.

SCIENTIFIC REPORT

AGE:

The heart and organs were healthy. The wisdom teeth had grown. These appear in people around 20 years of age.

STOMACH:

The man had eaten at least 12 hours before he died. The soupsoup was made up of seeds that were only connected with Spring.

DOD:

When they dug up the grave some plants were trapped under the body. They were about 20002000 years old.

The German tribes hang traitors from trees and drown cowards in fens under piles of

sticks.

This is a statue of an Earth Goddess

found in a peat bog in Denmark.

The German tribes worshiped the Goddess of Spring. Every Spring a cart carries a statue

of the Goddess in a procession. Afterwards the

cart and statues were washed by slaves, and then the slaves

were sacrificed.

German Tribes hung traitors in trees, cowards, people afraid to go to war and people with bad morals were lowered into bogs and covered with branches. One historian, Tacitus, described how German tribes sacrificed human beings to Gods and Goddesses.

At the time of the Tollund Man there were different burial customs in Denmark, but the one thing they all had in common was that they included cremation - except for a small group of people who were sacrificed. They were placed in bogs without being cremated.

The Tollund Man might have been naked when he was placed in the bog because he was a murdered slave. It might explain why he had an iron ring around his neck!

X-Rays

The forensic report stated that the Tollund

Man's neck was not broken. However, the forensic examiner was

certain that he had been hanged. New

examinations reveal among other things that his tongue was swollen which often

happens when a person is hanged.

Quick Questions

1. Who found the body?2. Where was the body

found?3. What did they find on

the body?4. Roughly, how long ago

was the Tollund Man killed?

5. What time of year was it when he was killed?

More detailed questions

How did the Tollund Man die?

• Why is it unlikely that he died of old age or disease?

• Examine Source A and Source I. What do you think killed the Tollund Man?

Taking things even further . . .

Why did the Tollund Man die?

1. German tribes once lived in Denmark. Sources C and F suggest why he might have been killed. Complete the following sentence:

- “Sources C and F suggest that the man might have been killed because . . .

2. Now look at Sources D, E and G. They suggest a different reason why the Tollund Man was killed. What is this reason? Complete this sentence:

- “Sources D, E and G suggest that the Tollund Man was killed because . . .

Executed Criminal or Sacrificed Slave?

• Use all the evidence to reach your own conclusion. Remember to use evidence to back up your theory:

– I think the Tollund Man was an executed criminal/a sacrificed slave. I think this because . . .

Plenary – In pairs, write on a post-it note the main reason you came to your conclusion

Most historians today think that it was a sacrifice. The main reasons they think this are

. . .

The way the body has been buried. A criminal would have been thrown into the grave. This person has been buried with some care and the fact that they were killed during the spring when these sacrifices took place.