Things to do at the British Museum

Room 50 and Room 49

Room 50 contains the distressing case of Lindow Man, who suffered blows to the head before being garrotted, having his throat cut, and being drowned in Lindow Bog, near Manchester, some time in the first century A.D. And worse, nearby are the richest Iron Age burial found in the UK, PRB 1967 2-2.1-128, and the rather fine tomb of C Julius Alpinus Classicianus, procurator (finance minister) of Britain in the period following the Boudiccan rebellion of 60-61 A.D. If one wished to insult and taunt the dead, this would be how to do it. Even within his case, Lindow Man is separated from one of his legs, this having been cut off at the point of his being rediscovered.

A simple chain of two people would put Lindow Man in touch with case "C" above, containing several pretty things, and generally labelled "Foreign Contacts". At a stretch 9 people in a chain could put Lindow Man in contact with the comfortable grave of C Julius Alpinus Classicianus, while a mere 6 could comfortably put him in contact with the richest Iron Age burial in the UK, infinitely preferable to a soggy bog. To create a party atmosphere, 38 people in a chain (33 at full stretch) could bring him into contact with the earthly delights afforded by the case containing objects from Taplow Barrow.