Initially it was believed that the Grauballe Man had been a noble of some kind, because his hands lacked the callouses indicative of hard labor in life. It is now known that the alkali content of the bog removed all tissue from the corpse that had not been living at the time of his death, including the epidermal layers and any callouses. This also offers an explanation as to why the Grauballe Man's fingerprints were so impressively clear when taken shortly after his discovery.