00:00.00 Alex And we are back with arche animals episode episode 61 we are talking about the zoareology of dairy and it's time for well, it's time for case studies. But it's more importantly time for bog butter for for purple. 00:20.26 Alex Um, come with why? what. 00:20.81 Cpt Granarius Case Soly better be real exciting. You hyped it up too much. 00:24.65 Alex I mean it's Bog butter. Everyone knows Bog butter even like my non-areologist friends know about bog butter because one it's so interesting and 2 it's really funny like I mean we were specifically talking about Iris Bog butter but it is weirdly. And I had no idea about this. It is weirdly a really common occurrence in Boggs found across Ireland and Scotland to slightly kind of move back a bit because I actually don't know if we've really talked about boggs on this show. 00:59.65 Cpt Granarius Think we may have glanced on the subject of boggs. 01:06.23 Alex It's because it's not really a zooar thing is it. It's more of a the yeah so bogs are especially for people who may be in areas where Bogs aren't really a thing. 01:08.28 Cpt Granarius Now you tend to associate it with sort of with human remains and sort of bot bodies and such. 01:21.88 Alex They are ultimately extremely handy environments for archaeologists due to their very unique physical and chemical composition which aids in preservation and that's how you get Bog bodies which are probably the most well known besides the butter. Ah. Kind of product of bogs it just it preserves organic materials. So well that you know we have some incredible human remains from you know the leader prehistoric that are still quite well preserved. 01:40.50 Cpt Granarius And oh. 01:56.97 Alex Because of the bogs but also butter. 01:59.84 Cpt Granarius But my my first question is how much do you think buck butter stinks. 02:06.10 Alex I Mean yeah, probably bad. 02:11.49 Cpt Granarius Because water log deposits sting. 02:15.90 Alex Yes, as someone who has dealt with what I've talked talked on this podcast before because someone made some fantastic fan art of it cheesy bone which is just the I know we must. We are returning to cheesy bone which makes sense because we are talking about dairy. 02:27.50 Cpt Granarius Um, forgot about cheesy pop. 02:34.82 Alex Ah, which has nothing to do with dairy. It's just water log bone that we just always referred to as cheesy bone on site because it just it just crumbles the you touch Its it's so waterlogged. It's horrific. 02:48.78 Cpt Granarius Um, oh somebody you think are like the Anaobic conditions was so like make it sort of very very, not stable necessarily. But. 03:01.85 Alex Oh yeah, no, this was what the say I worked on was weird. It was caves caves caves and water aren't as good of ah unfortunately we did not I did not work in a Bog which would have been cool instead I had to face my fear of claustophobia. 03:07.25 Cpt Granarius Ah, right. 03:16.78 Cpt Granarius Think what I find like in my experience with waterlocked bones that it goes black but not the not not not child black. Just yeah Unch Childd are still black. 03:17.14 Alex And Sin a cave. 03:22.22 Alex Well yeah I done. 03:29.40 Alex I Mean in general though bone smells like if anyone's ever had to drill into bone and to be honest, if you've gone to the dentist and had to get work done. You know what bone smells like and it's disgusting. 03:41.77 Cpt Granarius I Just and and so are waterlock deposits to a good holly tip. How do I Tell if this is waterlocked there a stink probably I mean yes, they could also be water lane which doesn't necessarily make it water longed. 03:50.43 Alex Is it What? also probably true Bo butter. So yeah, weirdly common occurrence I in my my tiny little brain I was like bogboter has been found like once or twice right. 03:59.75 Cpt Granarius But Semantics buck butter. 04:09.97 Alex No, there has been at least five hundred Bog Butters found in Ireland alone that is five hundred Bog Butters you could eat folks. You could have a delicious meal. 04:22.32 archpodnet You right? please please as a as a um disclaimer here. Please don't eat the bug butter. We do not know what the effects are okay we we we cannot guarantee. It's safe. Okay, now as somebody who's the representative of the country of Bug butter. 04:27.86 Alex Of. 04:39.43 archpodnet And obviously very very important. But yeah it it has to be treated with respect. You must respect the butter from the Bog I do want to eat the butter really badly and now you're talking about. But now you're talking about the cheesy bones and I'm like. 04:45.78 Alex You want to eat the butter. What are you talking about but like respectfully. 04:55.52 Cpt Granarius Um. 04:55.97 archpodnet Right? Why do we have cheesy bones Bog butter and like what's the bread. You know what? I mean you're making a sandwich in my mind with all these stuff. 05:00.63 Alex Well, that's that's the thing when I was saying that I feel like bogbo bog butter is become kind of like a meme outside of archeology because I've seen people talk about wanting to take like. The bread that's been preserved in like Pompei and slather it with the bog butter baby. You got ah a mealgo in there. 05:18.21 archpodnet Um, yeah, and. 05:20.61 Cpt Granarius But isn't isn't that just the thing with people in general that they just want to eat everything because I've heard that with like sort of preserved mammoth meat in the tundra. Um, and people wanted to eat that. Pre of an article a thing that someone wanted to like drink I think like some suck offpha guy though I'm coming in Egypt and someone who wanted to have the the sort of the liquid that was oozing out like the end like you just name something. There's someone out there that wants to eat it. 05:40.55 Alex Oh yes. 05:49.21 Alex Yeah, and that's why the human species is a fan like a fascinating species and it's a miracle every day that we have not made ourselves extinct anyway, Bog Bog butter 05:55.87 Cpt Granarius Um. 06:02.10 archpodnet Yeah, Okay, okay. 06:06.74 Alex So The earliest Bog butter is from the early Bronze Age. That's like your oldest vintage butter that you could eat if say you'd like to eat the Bog butter and it's actually found in a variety of context so you have different times of Bog butter to select in your meal. Ah, sometimes it's found in baskets or other kind of wooden containers. Sometimes it's wrapped in Bark or even animal tissue or sometimes it's just what I refer to as nude someone just plopped the book the butter down into the bung. 06:41.83 Cpt Granarius We? Well we'll delve more into it further. But I'm just picturing just someone at some point in 3000 bc just keep like losing their butters into the bog it was like oh no. 06:53.79 archpodnet I I can't hold all these buckers it just like spilling over ah another one is like as like suddenly is like ah another one I mean. Okay. 06:56.64 Alex Oh please can someone make fun art. 07:08.43 archpodnet I mean but honestly from an archaeological point of view like either people keep accidentally dropping the butter because they keep squeezing it ah off either app or or they're putting it there on purpose but I really like the idea that they're like squeezing the butter and it just like comes like like. 07:17.28 Cpt Granarius Um, or or. 07:26.93 archpodnet Our soap. 07:28.42 Cpt Granarius Or there was ah a butter delivery service right? and the delivering boy would just get paid upfront. So's like a colleague you know like would sort of like the one now. So deliver newspapers I can't be bothered to deliver all of these but just pop up in the book. 07:33.40 archpodnet Um. 07:39.81 archpodnet Oh what? What would be called like but Bogger Boo Oh sorry I've lost your butter on transit I was going Bas's book. 07:45.52 Cpt Granarius And. 07:56.70 archpodnet I slipped on the bug butter that was already there. Okay, okay, we're done go on. 08:03.87 Alex So well while this is ah a fascinating theory a fascinating theory for why Bog butter exists that I mean that's I mean that's the thing though is I there we actually don't really know why pog butter exists. So. 08:03.93 Cpt Granarius Um, still. 08:09.38 Cpt Granarius Ah, what we? what we're doing good fires here. 08:09.45 archpodnet Um, this is archeology and practice guides. This is legit. 08:16.93 Cpt Granarius Control. 08:20.55 Alex You know what? it's fair game I mean for for normal people. Ah their normal theories for Bog Butter includes the fact that it was used as storage for enhancing the flavor or and this is what I like to think about. 08:33.33 archpodnet So right. 08:38.70 Alex Ritual reasons. But but. 08:39.99 archpodnet I Like to imagine that we like worshipped squirrels in the past and we saw them buring nuts in the we're like the squirrels have something here. 08:49.75 Alex I think they're on something so yeah bogs as funny as they are like they actually are kind of really useful for storage even though it is funny to think about people just losing their but their butters in the Bog. Ah so. 08:53.40 Cpt Granarius Have. 09:09.16 Alex With storage. Um Bogs are basically just natural fridges based on the way they're chemically composed the environment that the chemical composition of bugs creates is very cool and anaerobic and high high acidity so you could basically put. Some butter there and it'd be okay and also butter was actually quite valuable so you would you would want to keep them safe in ah in a vog so that the Bog boy doesn't steal your butter. 09:38.43 Cpt Granarius Um, but keep a secret. Keep it safe secret. 09:43.28 archpodnet I boglin it's the goplin of the Bog the boglin ah sorry. 09:48.86 Alex I Want to I want to reiterate that the the theories I'm talking about come from academic text I didn't make these up. Oh God so. 09:56.81 archpodnet I Woo Buckland 10:04.88 Cpt Granarius Um. 10:05.25 Alex So they're actually speaking of text. There are actually historical texts that suggests that Bog butter was traditionally known for being better tasting and than fresh butter I meant to write butter by rope bog and some Bog was really on the mind. It's starting to look like not a word. But yeah. Ah, there is actually no go away. Ah no, oh. 10:24.20 archpodnet I Guess it must have boggled the mind. Ah. 10:25.93 Cpt Granarius Oh we're getting bogged down come on. 10:37.80 archpodnet Um, save us Alex. 10:38.38 Alex Ah I can't believe I have to save this podcast That's how you know how bad it's gotten. But yeah, there's like actual folklore and text saying that yeah putting putting butter in a bottle makes taste much better than fresh butter. But anyway ritual as much as we like to say everyone says ritual for everything it. It actually kind of makes sense because bogs are traditionally or at least apparently ritual hotspots like we said bog body exists which may or may not have been kind of ritual de depositions. It's. Kind of dependent on what you're talking about as there's lots of places with bogs and there's also weapon deposition that's found in bogs very commonly so you know. Bogwaters may have been used ritually to ask for protection of livestock and for dairy production and if Trish's right may have also been a kind of appeasement to the the squirrel gods who knows so of course I looked up what Bob. Butter tastes like cause I was like someone's have to have eaten 1 right? like so like I would have done it if I was the archaeologist who found the bo butter I would have absolutely eaten it and then I would have died and it would have been worth it. It's fine. Ah so there have been some few cases of people allegedly trying bog butter. Although I think it's more likely people who have. 12:00.39 Alex Attempted to make their own Bog butter So not as old. Ah so some words some choice words I've seen have been ah funky ah putrid pungents and my favorite is Parmesan like. 12:01.85 Cpt Granarius Get. 12:18.49 Alex So ah, so actually and so kind of going back to another thing that Smo have mentioned before ah what animals were these butters made of so. 12:18.74 Cpt Granarius Disclaimer Please do not eat the archeology. 12:33.71 Alex Dna identification of species has been unsurprisingly very difficult and only kind of recently been accomplished with sheep and goat and cattle being identified among various samples. Ah, but there's also some samples where sheep and goat milk were potentially blended together to make butter. So on 1 hand if we're thinking about it on a ritual perspective that kind of makes sense. You want protection for all your animals you'll put all of their milk products into 1 thing but it could have also been attempts by smaller farms to you know, utilize all the resources they had into making butter which was so valuable and there we have finished the bog butter. Is everyone okay now have we all settled down. 13:15.69 archpodnet I a thing so it's okay I won't I won't continue this. Okay I think we've milked it enough. 13:25.81 Alex I will turn this podcast around if we will all behave when did I become the voice of reason. 13:31.45 archpodnet I Oh freak? Yeah, forgive me for making this podcast more cheesy that it already is. 13:36.17 Cpt Granarius You're not my real mom. 13:42.80 Alex Boo Boo the man I hope everyone who's listening to this podcast is out out loud booing the man for ruining my podcast cheese. We're going to cheese. 13:44.36 Cpt Granarius Um, the book. 13:58.38 Cpt Granarius Yes, we will move ah swiftly and literally swiftly because most of our time has been taken up by the squirrel guards and the the bog boy delivering butter. Um, right? Our second case case studies about cheesemaking in Neolithic Europe now cheese ah was is not only very important to late light night snacker so just Alex and myself but also was also an important innovation to preserve and transport milk as well as making it more digestible that is if the. 14:23.40 Alex He is. 14:34.51 Cpt Granarius The delivery boy does' a drop that drop it all into a bog a perforated pottery identified as linear pottery from central europe has being potentially identified as cheese strainers a again, the cheesepots that we discussed in the earlier reps in the earlier episode the earlier segment of this episode. But you have these ceramic vessels which ah holes in the bottom. It's a colander. Um, this is correlated with the fact that the linear pottery culture occurs during early domestication in nearby archaeological contexts with milkbearing animal remains this theory has. However, been pushed back somewhat what due to the lack of evidence for specifically milk on the pottery so of through sort of lipid analysis and some of the other process which again we discussed in a previous segment. Um as perff rateed pottery and sieves can also be used for a variety of non milk products as well. Alex mentioned. Ah. Honey and beeswax but also beer. They could also be used as flame covers. So you know, no lipid analysis. No party in a way. Um, researchers were however able to identify dairy fat residues on linear pottery. Providing evidence that some pottery was used to process milk between five thousand two hundred and four thousand Eight hundred Bce because of the presence of this perforated pottery. It was determined that this was likely used for cheesemaking rather than any other form of daring processing. What was interesting about it is that the rest you analysis. 16:05.17 Cpt Granarius Was also able to differentiate certain pieces of pottery from others with regards to potential users for cooking and straining. So for example, you know some pots had evidence of it being heated to higher temperatures hence used for cooking while some flasks add evidence of beeswax which would have. Likely been flakeed for honey storage though. Incidentally the bees wax may have also been used to waterproof some of the sibs. So the plot thickens somewhat um on the overall the swiftest case study in the history of arche animals. Ah, is a very good illustration of having multiple resources multiple sources that you can use as evidence for daring on a particular so site or time period. Um, also cheeses. Great. Even if it may or may not kill. Alex. 16:51.49 Alex Cheese is amazing and I wish I could spend more time on cheese. But unfortunately the Bog boy has taken most of our time I did I mean I was thinking about that I mean well. 17:00.69 Cpt Granarius What about Bog cheese. But Book Pa is out. 17:10.72 Alex Kind of reexist the butter pering taste like that I should also point out the the report that I read and it was like a news article about the person who said it tasted like Parmesan the person was like it tastes like parmesant and then the the person who was interviewing him was like oh so like you know, like in a good way and. The guy was like well you know the enzyme that makes that Parmesan taste is also like the one that's found in Vomit. So I think I think that that really sums up the the dichotomy of Bog Butter. So That's cool. 17:38.10 Cpt Granarius Um, oh. 17:49.65 Alex Anyway, the the most important thing I want to impress upon on the listeners is that Bog Butter is a weirdly common occurrence. So if you know have a Bog nearby. Why don't you go take ah a big net as as and you know fish around. There's probably like. 17:50.00 Cpt Granarius Ah, really. 18:07.72 Alex Ah, decent chance you might find some butter and I can't say what to do with it afterwards. But you know saying it's in your hands then I'm not liable for what happens afterwards but let us know what it may or may not taste like. 18:25.78 Alex And you can do that because we are on Twitter at archaeo animals. We are also obviously on the archaeology podcast network website and wherever you get your podcasts where you can like subscribe follow us, you can leave us a nice review saying that you would love for us to never speak about. Fog butter again. 18:45.62 Cpt Granarius Or an all Bog Butter episode. 18:48.97 Alex No I mean I don't know if you want to make and a completely unlistable as episode. But. 18:54.55 archpodnet I No we have to big the Bo cast like a whole podcast to my bogs. Ah oh God I could hear it now. 18:55.61 Cpt Granarius And. 19:09.15 archpodnet Today's episode on bogcast. 19:12.23 Alex Anyway, this has been Alex was Patrick the only adult in the room. Oh gosh don't even bother tuna next time. 19:15.19 Cpt Granarius Oh see what of anger. 19:16.32 archpodnet I Add Mr. Boggboy. 19:25.22 Cpt Granarius Pay.