The lack of oxygen prevents the usual decomposition, and natural tannins mean that even the contents of the stomach are retained for modern study (The Editors, 2024).
When unearthed, even the soft tissues had been mummified. This level of preservation is unusual in prehistoric bodies. It only happens in these cases because of the anaerobic conditions of a peat bog. The lack of oxygen prevents the usual decomposition, and natural tannins mean that even the contents of the stomach are retained for modern study (The Editors, 2024). Only when the body was radiocarbon dated, did the investigators realize that the young man had lived in the Iron Age (Media, 2024).