2,500-year-old butter found in loch

Butter dating back 2,500 years has been found at the bottom of a loch.

Traces of dairy matter were found preserved inside a wooden butter dish, made by an Iron Age community.

The wooden dish was discovered by archaeologists at the bottom of Loch Tay where at least 17 crannogs, or Iron Age wooden houses, once stood.

Built from alder with a lifespan of around 20 years, the structures simply collapsed into the loch once they had served their purpose, taking the objects inside with them.

The crannogs were considered highstatus sites which offered good security as well as easy access to trading routes along the Tay and into the North Sea.

Rich Hiden, archaeologist at the Scottish Crannog Centre, said conditions at the bottom of the loch had offered the perfect environment to preserve the butter and the dish.

Mr Hiden said: “Owing to the fantastic anaerobic conditions, where there is very light, oxygen or bacteria to break down anything organic, you get this type of sealed environment.

“When they started excavating, they pulled out this square wooden dish – well around three quarters of a square wooden dish – which had these really nice chisel marks on the sides as well as this grey stuff.”

Analysis on the matter found it was dairy material, with experts believing it likely originated from a cow.

Holes in the bottom of the wooden dish suggest it was used for the buttering process.

The butter then may have been turned into cheese by adding rennet, which naturally forms in a number of plants, including nettles.

Mr Hiden said: “This dish is so valuable in many ways.

“To be honest, we would expect people of this time to be eating dairy.

“In the early Iron Age, they had mastered the technology of smelting iron ore so mastering the technology of dairy we would expect.

“While it may not surprise us that they are eating dairy, what is so important about this butter dish is that it helps us to identify what life was like in the crannogs and the skills and the tools that they had.”

SWNS. Picture: The wooden butter dish and traces of dairy matter.