Long ago I picked up a spade, not an ordinary spade, but one with a flange along one side. It turned out this was a turf spade for cutting turf of peat. I was told a story about the artifacts discovered in bogs such as butter barrels with butter preserved inside, butter pots and animal skeletons equally well preserved.
On a visit to a museum I saw many more artifacts all discovered in bogs. There were brooches, plates, torcs, bracelets, chalices, pots, religious relics and many more. In recent months a manuscript was discovered. It seemed peat was a good preservative.
Over the years I developed an interest in these relics. They tell a story of a cultural and social history from hundreds of years ago.
These artifacts relate to cultural history in the form of cooking pots, jewelery, skeletons etc. It relates to social history in the way people lived, religious history through reliquaries and manuscripts, and to technological history through axe heads, carved bones and flint implements.
No comments:
Post a Comment