Source A
Saturday, 26 April 1952
Nebelgard Fen near the town of Grauballe Denmark.
Some peat-cutters have shouted out and shown you what they have uncovered. Sticking out from the ground is a dark - coloured human head with a stubbly chin, short -cropped, red-brown hair and dark eyes. The face, squashed by the weight of the peat, is twisted into a look of fear. Looking closer you see a long deep cut round the front of the neck, from ear to ear. The man has been murdered!
After further digging the naked body measuring five feet four inches is fully exposed, and taken for examination to the police HQ at Aarbus.
|
Source D
After studying the pollen grain in the peat surrounding the body, the history detectives make a startling announcement. The earth surrounding the body dates from the time of Christ's birth.
Another test measures the amount of radio - active carbon in the body. Every living creature contains carbon, but after death the amount gradually decreases. By measuring the amount of Carbon left in the body - tissue it is possible to calculate its age. By this method our Grauballe man is thought to be 1650 years old.
About 160 similar corpses had been unearthed and in every case the body had been strangled, beheaded or mutilated.
|
|
|
Source B
The man suffered from rheumatoid arthritis - a disease that usually starts at 30. The condition of the teeth confirms that age, and their worn state suggests that the man ate plenty of meat.
The hands are smooth and unused to rough manual work. There are no records of the fingerprints.
The stomach contents reveal that his last meal was a soup made up of sixty ingredients; including buttercup, yarrow, clover, rye, dockin and barley.
|
Source C
|
The man was a peat cutter called Christian. He disappeared without trace about 65 years ago. Yes, that's him all right. He was stooped with consumption and he drank you know. He must have fallen into the bog.....and drowned.
|
Source E
These people of Denmark worship the Goddess Nerthus, Mother Earth, and do not consider it fitting with the greatness of her heavenly powers to confine her within four walls or to represent her in the likeness of a human face. They make holy groves and give the name "Goddess" to that secret presence which they can see only in awe and adoration.
On an island in a holy grove is a holy chariot, covered in robes. Only one priest is permitted to touch it. He interprets the presence of the Goddess in her shrine and follows with deep reverence as she rides away drawn by oxen. Then come the days of rejoicing and all places keep holyday. Every weapon is put away. Peace and quiet are alone known until the priest returns the Goddess to her temple when she has had her fill of the society of mortals. After this the chariot, robes and the goddess herself are washed in a secret pool. Slaves are the holy servants and afterwards they are straightaway killed and put in the same pool.
|
|
|
