Researchers have found new evidence that points to the likelihood that prehistoric people had ‘dairy farms,’ as long as 7,000 years ago.
By analyzing pottery fragments, study researcher Julie Dunne, a doctoral student at the University of Bristol and her colleagues have now shown that these early herders were not only milking their livestock, but also processing that milk into products like yogurt, cheese and butter.
“The most exciting thing about this is that milk is one of the only foodstuffs that gives us carbohydrates, protein and fat,” all in one substance, Dunne told LiveScience. “So it was incredibly beneficial for prehistoric people to use milk.”
They found evidence of a varied diet, with signs found for plant oils and animal fat. The most common fats were of animal origin, Dunne said, with some deriving from flesh and others from milk. The most dairy-fat rich pottery shards came from the same time periods when more cattle bones are found in the cave layers, the researchers reported today (June 20) in the journal Nature.
No one has ever before looked for evidence of dairy farming in these herding tribes, Dunne said, but the new findings help explain how humans got their taste for milk. People first settled down to an agricultural lifestyle in the Near East about 8,000 or 9,000 years ago, she said. Soon after, they took up dairy farming. The milk habit then spread across Europe in fits and starts.
Source: Christian Science Monitor