The Grauballe Man is a bog body that was uncovered in 1952 from a peat bog near to the village of Grauballe in Jutland, Denmark. The body itself is that of an adult male dating from the late 3rd century BC, during the early Iron Age, and he had been killed by having his throat slit open. His corpse was then deposited in the bog, where his body was naturally preserved for over two millennia. He was not the only bog body to be found in the peat bogs of Jutland, with other notable examples being Tollund Man and the Elling Woman, thereby being a part of an established tradition at the time; it is commonly thought that these killings, including that of Grauballe Man, were examples of human sacrifice, a possibly important rite in Iron Age Germanic paganism.
Grauballe Man has been described as "one of the most spectacular discoveries from Denmark's prehistory"[1] because it is one of the most exceptionally preserved bog bodies ever to be recorded. Upon excavation in 1952, it was moved to the Prehistoric Museum in Aarhus where it underwent research and conservation. In 1955 the body went on display at the Moesgaard Museum near Aarhus, where it can still be seen today.
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Grauballe Man was initially dated to having been killed in the late 3rd century BC by analysing the stratigraphic layer of peat that his body was found in.[2] This date was subsequently confirmed by radiocarbon dating his liver, the results of which were published in 1955.[3]
From his remains, various pieces of information about the Grauballe Man's life have been ascertained. His hands were smooth and did not show evidence of hard work, indicating that Grauballe Man was not employed in hard labour such as farming.[4] Study of his teeth and jaws indicated that he had suffered from "periods of starvation or a poor state of health during his early childhood."[5] The man's skeleton showed signs of significant calcium deficiency and he also suffered in the early stages of spondylosis deformans on his spine.[6] Due to the shrinkage that the corpse suffered in the bog, the man's actual height is not known. It is known that he had dark hair, although this too was altered in the bog, and now appears reddish in colour.
The corpse was not found with any artifacts or any evidence of clothing, indicating that when he died he was entirely naked, something that had also happened with the Tollund Man.[7] The actual manner of his death was by having his neck cut open, ear to ear, severing his trachea and also his oesophagus. Such a wound could not have been self-inflicted, indicating that this was not suicide.[8] Alongside this a damaged area to the skull initially thought to be inflicted by a blow to the head, has since been determined by a CT scan to be fractured due to pressure from the bog long after his death.[9]
The Grauballe Man's body was first discovered buried in the bog on 26 April 1952 by a team of peat diggers. One of the workmen, Tage Busk Sørensen, stuck his spade into something that he knew was not peat; upon revealing more they discovered the head protruding from the ground, and the local postman, who was just passing, alerted the local doctor as well as an amateur archaeologist named Ulrik Balslev. With the body still in the peat, various locals came to visit it over the next day, one of whom accidentally stepped on its head. The following morning, Professor Peter Glob from the Prehistory Museum at Aarhus came to visit the body, and organised for it to be removed to the museum, still encased in a block of surrounding peat.[10]
Glob and his team decided that they should not only research the body but that they should also attempt to preserve it so that it could be exhibited to the public. This concept was new at the time for most of the bog bodies previously discovered had been re-buried, sometimes in consecrated ground, with the Tollund Man which had been discovered two years earlier having only its head preserved. Despite the warnings of some scientists who believed that the corpse should immediately undergo preservation, it was exhibited straight away in order to capitalise on public interest. Indeed, the scientists' fears were proved right, as despite the fact that the body was kept permanently moist, mould started to appear on certain areas.[11]
The body then underwent research, including a post-mortem, and then preservation, which was organised by conservator C. Lange-Kornbak, who had to decide which was the best way to do this (no entire bog body had ever been preserved before). He examined various methods for doing this, before deciding on a programme of tanning the body to turn it into leather and then stuffing it with oak bark.[12] In 1955 the body went on display at the Moesgaard Museum near Aarhus, only to be removed for a time in 2001-2002 when it underwent more modern scientific study, including radiological study, CT scanning, 3D visualisation, stereolithography and analyses of the gut contents.
The Grauballe Man is the subject of a poem by Seamus Heaney.
