YORK, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that calcified plaque scraped from 6,000-year-old teeth has provided early evidence for dairy consumption among Britain’s Neolithic farmers. Traces of dairy products analyzed in the study were obtained from pottery fragments recovered at three Neolithic sites in Britain. Testing of these residues suggests that some of the milk had been heated, and analysis of the dental plaque using mass spectrometry detected a dairy protein in some of the individuals. The milk may have been converted into cheese, yogurt, or another fermented product that is easier to digest, since the DNA evidence indicates Britain’s Neolithic farmers were lactose intolerant. University of York archaeologist Sophy Charlton said people may have only consumed small amounts of dairy in order to avoid the abdominal pain, diarrhea, and nausea that can result from the inability to digest lactose beyond infancy. The mutation that makes it possible for adults to digest milk is thought to have first appeared in Europe during the Bronze Age. To read about some of the earliest evidence for cheese making, go to "When Things Got Cheesy."
Dairy Protein Found on Teeth of Britain’s Neolithic Farmers
News September 11, 2019
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries May/June 2019
Epic Proportions
Features January/February 2017
Fire in the Fens
A short-lived settlement provides an unparalleled view of Bronze Age life in eastern England
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2024
Location is Everything
-
Features July/August 2019
Place of the Loyal Samurai
On the beaches and in the caves of a small Micronesian island, archaeologists have identified evocative evidence of one of WWII’s most brutal battles
-
Letter from England July/August 2019
Building a Road Through History
6,000 years of life on the Cambridgeshire landscape has been revealed by a massive infrastructure project
(Highways England, courtesy of MOLA Headland Infrastructure) -
Artifacts July/August 2019
Bronze Age Beads
(Courtesy Carlos Odriozola) -
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2019
You Say What You Eat
(Courtesy David Frayer, University of Kansas; Karin Wiltschke-Schrotta, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien)