It seems to me that somehow we have the misconception that a taste for flavour, and convenience foods, is somehow a modern phenomenon. This idea has gained weight amongst many academics because of the analysed contents of various bog bodies from throughout Europe. The analysis of the stomach contents of a great many of these bodies is very similar. Dagten man from Germany, Huldremose woman from Denmark and Lindow man from England, are good examples to compare as they are widely distributed geographically, yet are all from the Iron age period. Dagten man was found in Germany in 1959( Turner 1995: 148) although his stomach contents were not analysed until 1967. The body of this 30 year old man had been decapitated, (his head was found 3m away from the rest of his body), his body also had several stabs and injuries which it is believed were inflicted after death. These injuries were probably inflicted when his body was pegged down in the bog with stakes. It is reasonable to assume that this man did not fall into the bog by accident! As he was pegged down to prevent him rising, Struve who published an article about German folklore talks about pegging bodies down in boglands ( Struve 1967: 33-76) 

'such persons criminals, suicides, victims of violence or accident, were rendered harmless.. so as not to return and haunt the living'

 Tacitus also mentions this practice in his studies of the Germans (Tacitus Germainia : 12 ) 'The traitor and deserter are hanged on trees, the coward, the shirker and the unnaturally vicious are drowned in miry swamps under a cover of wattled hurdles, The distinction in the punishments implies that deeds of violence should be paid for in the full glare of publicity, but that deeds of shame should be suppressed.'  

The contents of his stomach represented a typical list of contents from these bog bodies Wheat, Millet chaff and weed seeds such as corn spurry (Spergula arvensis), persicaria (Polygonum lapathifolium) and fat hen (Chenopodium album). The Huldremose woman's body (Turner 1995: 147) had a last meal of wheat, rye corn spurry and chaff, she had a willow post or stake 3ft long lay obliquely across her breast. This practice of pegging down of bodies or incasing them in a cage of stakes is well represented in archaeology supporting Tacitus's observations. The Lindow man in England was garrotted however, his throat had been cut and he also had a couple of blows to the head. The contents of his stomach were wheat or rye and barley chaff.  

Rick Turner observed that' the bran of the wheat or rye and the chaff of the barley were reported as being the most dominant components of the food debris.'(Turner 1995 : 76)

The large amounts of chaff in this body indicate a wholly different conclusion could be made when speculating about this gruel that was apparently a common last meal. It has been suggested by some that the particular weed seeds found in this gruel had perhaps some sort of ritual significance. It occurs to me that the reason for the large amounts of chaff and weed seeds in the stomach contents could have a very squalid explanation. It could have been floor sweepings, made into gruel, in fact prison food for the condemned criminal. This would be in keeping with Tacitius's observations that only the shameful criminals were deposited in the mire and pegged down. They certainly would not have been a suitable gift for the gods as a sacrifice.