These wetlands of decaying plant matter have remarkable preservation properties.
Ritual sacrifices by drowning in peat bogs were common in northwestern Europe.
We know this from the thousands of bog bodies that have been pulled out from bogs across Europe.
Illustrations of a barrel used to store bog butter and a churn.
The meat-preserving ability of bogs were known to Ice Age hunters ten thousand years ago.
Researchers have discovered large cache of mastodon meat at various sites in North America.
The bog butters we have today are thousands of years oldso old that their chemical signature had changed significantly.
For a long time, scientists couldnt tell whether they were dairy products or animal fats.
Recent research have confirmed that bog butters are indeed butter.
Many foods are also deliberately fermented to acquire new taste.
Another reasons for burying butter that has been suggested is security.
In mediaeval times, marauding enemies often plundered food stock.
Butter, being precious, could have been hidden in bogs to prevent its theft and destruction.
Theearliest bog butterdates back to 1500 BCE.
