22-pound, 2,000-year-old lump of butter found in Ireland
If you're running low on dairy products, maybe you should check your local bog.
Jack Conway recently happened upon a 22-pound hunk of butter in the Emlagh bog in County Meath, Ireland, that is estimated to be 2,000 years old.
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According to the Cavan County Museum, Jack Conway contacted the museum when he came across the disgusting 22-pound time capsule of butter while working near his home.
Bogs, which are wetlands with spongy soil, apparently have "excellent preservative properties – low temperature, low oxygen and highly acidic environment," according to the museum's website.
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Bog butter, which has actually been discovered more than once in recent times, is usually discovered in some sort of homemade container. As reported by the Atlas Obscura, Conway found the ancient chunk free flowing in the wet soil.
The museum says they sent the lump to the National Museum's Conservation Department to be studied. According to The Irish Times, Conway's bog butter is now a “creamy white dairy product, which smells like a strong cheese.”
If a new kind of cheese comes out of this, it will have all been worth it.
UPDATE June 15, 2016, 10:05 a.m. EST: Savina Donohoe, Cavan County Museum's curator, just reached out to Mashable and provided more information on this story.
Donohoe wrote to Mashable that the bog butter was found about 5 meters (16 feet) underground.
She said the fact that it was buried without a case, "might indicate that the butter was buried as an offering to the Gods. In the past this was a common ritual as butter was seen as a luxury and a sign of wealth - it was often used to pay rents and taxes."
Donohoe also got the chance to hold the curdled glob.
"It does smell like butter," she told Mashable. "Although I did not taste it, there was a strong smell from my hands after touching and holding it."
Hopefully she washed her hands afterwards.
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Sophie was a Viral Content Intern for the Watercooler channel. More writing and other stuff by Sophie can be found at www.sophiehirsh.com.
