Carbon-14 Dating

National Museum of Denmark's carbon-14 dating equipment used for the first readings. Big picture

A few years after the discovery of the Tollund Man the scientists started using nuclear physics to date organic objects: wood, charcoal, bones, leather and similar objects. By the use of a Geiger counter they were able to measure the amount of radioactive carbon-14 that was left in the organic material.

While human beings - and other organisms - are alive they absorb carbon. Carbon comes in carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14 where the latter is radioactive. When the organism dies, like the Tollund Man, the carbon-14 slowly disappears.

Today the dating process is done in a nuclear accelerator. Big picture

A small sample the size of a thumbnail was taken from the Tollund Man's body and used as the basis for the readings. Based on that it was possible to calculate that he died approximately 2,400 years ago.

At the dating laboratory of the National Museum of Denmark, where the carbon-14 datings are done, the scientists were also able to conclude that the Tollund Man wasn't very fond of eating fish, because if he had been there would have been more carbon-13 in his body. Your main source of carbon-13 is marine animals (fish, seals and web-footed birds).

In order to reach the most precise dating of the Tollund Man, several tests were done and as a result of that we are able to say with great certainty that he was hanged 3-400 years before the birth of Christ.