This should also address the second post in this thread, too.
A manger can be a whole lot of different things, depending on where you are, when you are, and what critter you are feeding. Basically about anything you use to contain animal feed can be considered a manger. Some are better named something else, like "hog trough," "dog bowl" or so on, but if a critter eats from it it can be called a manger. The word just means "eating place."
A horse manger is a box. A pig manger is a trough. A cow manger is a hay rack in front of her stall so she can gnosh while you're milking her. And so on.
In ancient times, a manger was often a stone or wooden trough. It can also be a box at a convenient height for the animal for feeding hay or grain to ruminants.
The "nativity scene" cradle thing is a very bad choice for a "manger" in a "stable" in "Bethlehem, Judea" around the year "0 CE."
More likely it was a sort of box fastened to the stall wall, about 3-4 inches deep at most, if made of wood. It might likely have been a stone or mud-brick shelf, if the stable was that of a rich person and not a lesser structure (wattle and daub or the like).
Does this answer your question(s)?? |
