Main pic: Archaeologist, Paula Harvey, with local men Micheál Boyle and Alan Moore, and the giant slab of butter. Pic: ‘Think you are from Portnoo?’ Facebook page.
There was an air of excitement in south west Donegal this week following the discovery of what appears to be an ancient slab of butter.
The large rectangular chunk was found on the farm of a local man in the Portnoo area on Tuesday.
Donegal Daily understands the discovery was made jointly by the landowner and another local man while working in a waterlogged field.
Ms Caroline Carr, Assistant Curator at Donegal County Museum, confirmed the discovery was reported to them as well as the National Museum of Ireland.
Staff at the National Museum are currently investigating the site of the find.
“The butter will be taken to the Conservation Department, National Museum, for research and analysis,” Ms Carr added.
One of the men who made the discovery is, literally, up to his knees in butter…
People have been finding ‘bog butter’ in County Donegal for at least two centuries. In the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1892, Rev James O’Laverty recounts finding a lump that “still retains the marks of the hand and fingers of the ancient dame who pressed it into its present shape” and that “tastes somewhat like cheese.”
The tradition of using bogs to keep butter edible dates back over 3,500 years, according to a 2019 study. The research was carried out by scientists and archaeologists at University College Dublin, Queen’s University, University College Cork, the University of Bristol and the National Museum of Ireland.
The bog’s preservative powers are so strong that butter can still be edible after centuries in the ground, according to the group.
However, the Portnoo discovery was slightly more unusual in that it was made in a waterlogged field which has appeared to have preserved it.
In early medieval Ireland, butter was also used as a means to pay taxes and rents.
It may have been an offering to the gods to keep people and their property safe – it would have been buried and never dug up again.
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