Bog butter

Bog butter from A Descriptive Catalogue of the Antiquities in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, 1857

"Bog butter" refers to an ancient waxy substance found buried in peat bogs, particularly in the United Kingdom and in Ireland. Likely an old method of making and preserving butter, some tested lumps of bog butter were made of dairy products while others were meat-based.

History

Bog butter is found buried inside some sort of wooden container, such as buckets, kegs, barrels, dishes and butter churns. It is a hydrocarbon of animal origin, also known as butyrellite. Until 2003 scientists and archaeologists were not quite sure of the origin of bog butter. Scientists working at the University of Bristol discovered that some samples of the "butter" were of adipose/tallow origin while others were of dairy origin. It has been proposed that bog butter has been formed by food products buried in an attempt at an archaic form of refrigeration, as the peat creates a hygienic seal around the buried matter.

In Scotland, the practice of burying bog butter dates back to at least the 2nd or 3rd century. Until recently, Ireland's oldest recorded find of bog butter is a carved hanging bowl dating back to the 6th or 7th century AD. On April 29, 2011, there were press reports of a find of approximately 100 pounds of bog butter in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, thought to date back about five millennia.

See also

• Adipocere

References

• Peatlands: Occasional finds
• Wired article on Bog Butter and other items found preserved in bogs
• Irish Peatland Conservation Council - Facts About Bog Butter
• Bog butter from 3000 BC found in ancient underground store