Bog Butter

gozunda

Dating of bog butter pushes back butter making back to 1750 BC

http://www.ucd.ie/newsandopinion/news/2019/march/14/irishbogbutterproventobe3500yearspastitsbestbeforedate/

Kloe_Kat

gozunda wrote: »

Dating of bog butter pushes back butter making back to 1750 BC

I think there was already well known for ten years at least. The study only found it was really butter not just tallow. A rehash

gozunda

Kloe_Kat wrote: »

I think there was already well known for ten years at least. The study only found it was really butter not just tallow. A rehash

????

Scientists from the University of Bristol, together with archaeologists from UCD, Queen’s University, University College Cork, and the National Museum of Ireland, sampled 32 bog butters held in the collections of the National Museum of Ireland and found that Irish bog ‘butter’ was indeed butter and that its use spanned at least 3,500 years, from around 1700 BC to the 17th century.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40975-y

These bog butters may indeed have a dairy origin, with the observed values occurring as a result of local isotopic differences in the diets of the ancient and modern reference animals. Suchvariations are negated by comparing the Δ13C values (δ13C18:0 − δ13C16:0) of the bog butters with the reference fat values (Fig. 4b), and here 26 of the 32 Irish bog butter samples were found to derive from a ruminant dairy origin with all values plotting within the range corresponding to a ruminant dairy fat. A further three bog butters (IB23, 30 and 32) were also likely to have derived from a dairy source as their Δ13C values plotted just below the reference dairy fat range. A similar phenomenon has been noted for Δ13C values from Irish Neolithic pot lipids and may be due to local environmental factors35,36. The remaining bog butters (IB1, 8 and 21) could not be precisely classified as their Δ13C values plotted mid-way between the reference ranges for ruminant adipose and dairy fats. While no container was associated with IB1, both IB8 and IB21 were wrapped in animal bladders and their fatty acid δ13C values may have been altered by the lipid content of these wrappings. As with the Scottish bog butters23, where multiple samples were analysed from each bog butter mass, the homogeneity of bog butters and the robustness of the stable isotope methodology was confirmed.

And

Radiocarbon measurements on bulk bog butter samples

Radiocarbon dating undertaken for this study has provided 50 new measurements on 32 Irish bog butters, adding to the 20 previously published measurements on 19 examples 

Kloe__Kat

gozunda wrote: »

????

Let me elaborate. See here it was already mentioned in 2010.

In recent years, definitive answers have been provided to the question of age for many more samples. During recent work by the author with the National Museum of Ireland, radiocarbon dating has shown that the time of deposition of the bog butters tested varied from the Bronze Age (early 17th century BC) up to the late 18th century AD - a range of nearly 3500 years

Synnott, C. (2010). A survey of published reasons for burying butter in bogs. Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 141-149.


We knew for years that Bronze Age was as early as the Bronze Age. I think the dates are published here for the first time but they are probably from years ago. A lot of the original research done takes 10 years plus to be published.

gozunda wrote: »

????

Scientists from the University of Bristol, together with archaeologists from UCD, Queen’s University, University College Cork, and the National Museum of Ireland, sampled 32 bog butters held in the collections of the National Museum of Ireland and found that *Irish bog ‘butter’ was indeed butter* and that its use spanned at least 3,500 years, from around 1700 BC to the 17th century.

And

This is the new part of the study. Dont get me wrong its a nice little study but it doesnt tell us a lot new.

gozunda

Kloe__Kat wrote: »

Let me elaborate. See here it was already mentioned in 2010.Synnott, C. (2010). A survey of published reasons for burying butter in bogs. Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 141-149. We knew for years that Bronze Age was as early as the Bronze Age. I think the dates are published here for the first time but they are probably from years ago. A lot of the original research done takes 10 years plus to be published.
This is the new part of the study. Dont get me wrong its a nice little study but it doesnt tell us a lot new.

Unsurprisingly the new study looked at previous findings and then used new research methods to determine the chemical and isotope composition of these bog "butters". Looks like the study has certainly provided confirmation, answered certain questions and confirmed a number of date ranges. Fairly decent study imo.

Kloe__Kat

gozunda wrote: »

Unsurprisingly the new study looked at previous findings and then used new research methods to determine the chemical and isotope composition of these bog "butters". Looks like the study has certainly provided confirmation, answered certsin questions and confirmed a number of date ranges. Fairly decent study imo.

Id not a huge fan of compound-specific stable isotope analysis but its useful here so I agree the interesting part of the study is knowing they are dairy products and to finally have the dates out there.