Faddan More Psalter used as a liner to stiffen the cover somewhat. Low oxygen levels in the bog provide unusual preservation conditions, and bogs were often used by Irish monks as hiding places for valuables in the face of Viking raids. In addition to low oxygen levels, sphagnum moss, of which the peat bog is composed, produces an antibiotic substance called sphagnan that binds with proteins on the surface of microorganisms, immobilising them. Its highly reactive carbonyl groups can alter chemicals and nutrients that would otherwise decompose organic matter. And above all the sphagnum moss causes organic material to undergo chemical changes itself
Ford Moss Ford Moss Ford Moss is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), containing a Scheduled Ancient Monument, located south-west of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England. The site is managed by the Northumberland Wildlife Trust and gained its SSSI status in 1968, and in 2005 it was designated a Special Area of Conservation. Ford Moss is bound to the south by the high Goatscrag Hill and the west by the Blackchester Hill, both of which are sandstone formations. It is one of two SSSIs located on the Ford & Etal estate which were originally two separate estates combined in 1908 when James Joicey,