A 2,000-year-old lump of butter was found buried in a bog in County Meath in Ireland.
The butter found by turf cutter Jack Conway at Emlagh bog earlier this month weighed about 22 pounds and had a smell of strong cheese, said the
Belfast Telegraph. Conway turned the butter over to a museum.
The Telegraph noted that butter was often buried in bogs to preserve it, and some researchers believe butter was sometimes buried as an offering to gods or spirits.
The National Museum of Ireland's Andy Halpin, assistant keeper of its antiquities division, told the
Press Association that the butter was found in an area where 11 townlands and the boundaries of three ancient baronies came together, making the discovery significant.
"These bogs in those times were inaccessible, mysterious places," Halpin said. "It is at the juncture of three separate kingdoms, and politically it was like a no-man's-land – that is where it all hangs together."
Savina Donohoe, curator of Cavan County Museum, said the bog butter discovery was "unique." Donohue told
UTV Ireland that butter was a "rich commodity" thousands of years ago.
"It did smell like butter, after I had held it in my hands, my hands really did smell of butter," Donohue told UTV. "There was even a smell of butter in the room it was in."
The Telegraph said the butter will be carbon dated.
"Theoretically the stuff is still edible but we wouldn't say it's advisable," Halpin said.
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