life+and+times+of+grauballe+mann

The life and times of Grauballe man

Gr Grauballe man did not have any clothing or objects with him or near him in the bog, which could be either because he wasn't wearing any or they decomposed in the bog.

Looking at Grauballe, we notice that he has a large slit throat stretching from ear to ear, which is a clue to why he was a bog body in the first place-most of the bog bodies found had some sort of injury, or had been hung with a rope before being buried in the bog.

It is thought the bog bodies were either for a sacrificial ritual, or perhaps punishments for serious crimes!!!

His last meal (which was still preserved in his stomach!) was porridge made from barley, wheat and over 60 different herbs and grasses!! Tiny bits of pig bone were also found, which means meat may have been a part of this diet, but it could possibly have remained from an earlier meal, depending how long he waited between meals.

This porridge is similar to other "last meals" of various bog bodies, such as Tollund man, which is another reason people believe the bog bodies were a sacrificial ritual, where they were made to eat this grain meal, killed or injured and tossed into the bog, perhaps with chanting or some other ritual to complete the sacrifice.

The time period Grauballe man was from is the Iron Age, again a similar time period to other bog bodies found in area's near Grauballe. This is yet another link to the "sacrifice theory" as the tradition would have still been followed and wouldn't have yet died out. The iron age was a time where daily activities consisted of feeding livestock and everyone working on the villages to keep everything in order, with the porridge/gruel also thought to have been eaten by many people, not just sacrifices.

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