Bog butter found in underground store in Ireland could be from Iron Age
May 3rd, 2011 - 5:16 pm ICT by ANINew York, May 3 (ANI): A wooden vessel containing bog butter, thought to be 5,000 years old, dating from the Iron Age, was found buried in an underground store in Ireland.
Joe Clancy and his nephew Brian found over 100 pounds of the ancient “bog butter” buried, as a form of refrigeration, in Ballard bog on the outskirts of Tullamore, County Offaly, as they were cutting turf.
“We were cutting turf and I found what looked like a huge piece of timber. We took it out with a spade and it turned out to be bog butter,” Irish Central quoted Joe as telling the Irish Times.
“It looked like a keg or an urn with two handles and a lid carved from a solid piece of wood,” he explained.
The 100 pounds wooden vessel has carving marks around the edges with a removable lid with handles and holes, possibly for carrying.
It measures a foot in diameter, is almost two feet tall and was buried seven-feet down.
When the men found the container Joe returned to his house and researched bog butter on the Internet.
He then returned to the bog and filled a wheelbarrow with the peat and put the keg into it and brought it home and contacted the National Museum of Ireland. (ANI)
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Tags: ballard, diameter, holes, irish times, iron age, keg, national museum of ireland, nephew, outskirts, peat, refrigeration, removable lid, spade, tullamore, turf, two feet, underground store, urn, wheelbarrow, wooden vessel