Gallagh Man

The remains date to c. 470–120 BC, and are of a six-foot (1.8 m) tall, healthy male with dark and reddish hair, who is estimated to have been about 25 years old at the time of death.

The presence of a withy hoop – rope made from twisted willow twigs – found wrapped around his throat indicates that he was strangled during a ritual killing[1][2] or executed as a criminal.

[6][8] The corpse remained in situ until excavated fully and bought by the Royal Irish Academy in 1829, and later transferred to the National Museum of Ireland.

[11] It was probably used as a garrotte to strangle him, probably during a ritual involving human sacrifice,[12] given that most of such bodies from this period are young males aged 25 to 40 years old, and like many of these victims, his hair had been closely cropped.

[6] However, the willow rope strongly suggests ritual sacrifice; they often appear for this purpose in early Irish mythological stories such as that of the Táin Bó Cúailnge.