This slim little book (174 pages) deals with the discovery of an ancient body in the peat bog of Lindow Moss, England. It covers its discovery, the efforts to remove and preserve the body and the findings of several internal and external examinations of the body. This 2,000 years old male, who was in excellent physical shape when he died, was apparently clubbed, garroted and bleed to death before being dropped into the bog. The contents of his stomach revealed a last meal of prepared grains which might have been deliberately burnt. Using this and historical sources about the region, the authors speculate on the meaning of the man's death and where it fit into the society of that time. They conclude that he was a Druid who was sacrificed at Beltaine in the year 60 AD to appease the gods of the Celts after the Roman armies had succeeded in crushing the major resistance to them in the area.
The authors research took them from similar burials in England and in Denmark, folklore of the area, to Roman reports about the Celts to reach their conclusions. This net, cast widely over the areas of history, archaeology and folklore does bring the Celtic world of England in the first century CE into sharp focus. However, the authors express their theories about the bog remains as facts. Although the scientific research on the body is solid, their conclusions about how he was, when he died and the reasons behind it belong to the realm of speculation. All of their contentions about the body cannot be proven and the book would have been better if they'd couched their terms in "could have been" instead of insisting on their conclusions being factual. Their theories do fit the events and what we know of the social, political and religious structure of pre-Roman England but that does not signify that they are accurate.
The book did broaden my horizons in both archaeology and the history of the Celtic people. A light read without the depth I hoped for.