Archaeology

Bog Butter

Occasional finds

Many archaeologically important objects have been found in Northern Ireland peatland,ranging from individual artefacts to ritually deposited hoards. These hoards, dating mainly from the late Bronze Age, include weapons and items of personal adornment.

Wooden artefacts are one of the most common individual portable finds and can include household utensils, tool handles and containers of various shapes and sizes. It is important to report any objects found in peatland, so archaeologists can evaluate their context.

Bog butter

The largest number of wooden containers found in peat are the carved tubs and kegs, dishes and bowls that were used as receptacles for bog butter. Chemical analysis of bog butter has shown that it bears little resemblance to modern butter. It often contains hair from reddish-brown cattle, which has led many to believe that animal fat was used to produce the butter. We do not know the original purpose of bog butter, but possibilities include food, fat for cooking and grease for wool prior to spinning.

Recent radiocarbon dating from Scotland has shown that the practice of burying bog butter dates back to at least the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD. The oldest recorded bog butter find in Ireland is from a carved hanging bowl found in County Roscommon dated to the 6th or 7th century AD. Several of the wooden containers in which bog butter has been found have a similar appearance to a butter churn - slightly bowed sides, two carrying handles on opposite sides, a pronounced shoulder and an upright neck with a lid which sometimes has a central hole.

The reason for burying the butter in the bog is uncertain but there are several theories. It is possible that during the summer months there was a surplus of dairy products and the butter was buried in the bog to preserve them. Perhaps the burial also improved the flavour of the butter. Some wooden artefacts were buried in bogs for ritual and spiritual reasons, but none of the expected artefacts related to rituals have been found with any of the finds of bog butter in Ireland, so this is an unlikely explanation.