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Long before modern banking, butter was so valuable in parts of Europe that it was sometimes used to pay rent, taxes, and wages. In countries such as Ireland, butter was considered a symbol of wealth because producing it required large amounts of milk and labor.
People even buried butter in peat bogs to preserve it for months or years, creating what is now known as bog butter. Some of these preserved butter deposits have been discovered centuries later and are still recognizable. These discoveries offer fascinating insights into ancient food storage and trade.
© National Museum of Ireland