Upstream | August 31, 2009 | 1 comment

Iron Age Butter Discovered in Ireland

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DeliaTheArtist
"Irish workers have discovered one of the earliest examples of packaged and preserved food.

An oak barrel dating back to about 3,000 years ago has been found filled with exceptionally well-preserved butter.

Cut out of a trunk, the three-foot-long, almost one-foot-wide butter barrel weighs 35 kilograms (77 pounds) and comes complete with a lid.

The butter was found by peat workers John Fitzharris and Martin Lane, who spotted it as they harrowed the Gilltown bog in County Kildare, Ireland.

"We knelt down and felt something hard and started to dig it out with out bare hands. We could smell it, and it was attracting crows," Fitzharris told local reporters.

Now housed at the conservation department of the National Museum of Ireland, the barrel and its buttery contents are being cleaned and analyzed."
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