Revealing the Past 2023: Investigating the Northern Irish Bog Butter Assemblage - Karen O'Toole, UCD

A biennial seminar presenting a selection of recent discoveries through research grants administered by the Royal Irish Academy's Standing Committee for Archaeology, including from archaeological excavation funded by the National Monuments Service, related research funded by the National Monuments Service and Historic Environment Division NI and radiocarbon dating research funded by Queen's University Belfast.

Investigating the Northern Irish Bog Butter Assemblage - Karen O'Toole, University College Dublin

Bog butter is among the most common finds recovered from Irish peatlands, though it remains relatively poorly understood. The practice of bog butter deposition currently extends from the Early Bronze Age to the Post-Medieval period and, as a result, bog butter has the potential to tell us much about farming, dairying, and diet in the past. This talk focuses on the bog butter assemblage from Northern Ireland, an especially under-researched assemblage. It will explore its character, chronology, and distribution through time, with reference to the wider Irish assemblage. In particular, it discusses new dates from the Northern Irish assemblage and the results of recent organic residue analyses which have greatly enhanced our understanding of bog butter deposition on the island of Ireland.