. Energy News .




FARM NEWS
Chemical analysis reveals first cheese making in Northern Europe in the 6th millennium BC
by Staff Writers
Bristol UK (SPX) Dec 14, 2012


The processing of milk and particularly the production of cheese were critical in early agricultural societies as it allowed the preservation of milk in a non-perishable and transportable form and, of primary importance, it made milk a more digestible commodity for early prehistoric farmers.

The first unequivocal evidence that humans in prehistoric Northern Europe made cheese more than 7,000 years ago is described in research by an international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, UK, published this week in Nature.

By analysing fatty acids extracted from unglazed pottery pierced with small holes excavated from archaeological sites in Poland, the researchers showed that dairy products were processed in these ceramic vessels.

Furthermore, the typology of the sieves, close in shape to modern cheese-strainers, provides compelling evidence that these specialised vessels have been used for cheese-making.

Before this study, milk residues had been detected in early sites in Northwestern Anatolia (8,000 years ago) and in Libya (nearly 7,000 years ago). Nevertheless, it had been impossible to detect if the milk was processed to cheese products.

Researchers from the Organic Geochemistry Unit at the University of Bristol, together with colleagues at Princeton (USA), Lodz, Gdansk and Poznan (Poland) studied unglazed pottery from the region of Kuyavia (Poland) dating from around 7,000 years ago.

These had been typologically interpreted as cheese-strainers by archaeologists for more than 30 years due to the peculiar presence of small sized holes on the surface of the sherds. In fact, these archaeological sherds looked like modern cheese-strainers.

Using lipid biomarker and stable isotope analysis, researchers examined preserved fatty acids trapped in the fabric of the pottery and showed that the sieves had indeed been used for processing dairy products. Milk residues were also detected in non-perforated bowls, which may have been used with the sieves.

Contrastingly, the analyses of non-perforated pottery (cooking pots or bottles) demonstrated that they were not used for processing milk. The presence of ruminant carcass fats in cooking pots showed that they were likely used to cook meat, while the presence of beeswax in bottles suggests the sealing of the pottery to store water.

Thus, the analyses of such a range of ceramics from the same area showed for the first time that different types of pottery were used in a specific manner, with sieves (and maybe bowls) being used for cheese-making, cooking pots for cooking meat and waterproofed bottles for storing water.

The processing of milk and particularly the production of cheese were critical in early agricultural societies as it allowed the preservation of milk in a non-perishable and transportable form and, of primary importance, it made milk a more digestible commodity for early prehistoric farmers.

Melanie Salque, a PhD student from the University of Bristol and one of the authors of the paper said: "Before this study, it was not clear that cattle were used for their milk in Northern Europe around 7,000 years ago.

However, the presence of the sieves in the ceramic assemblage of the sites was thought to be a proof that milk and even cheese was produced at these sites. Of course, these sieves could have been used for straining all sorts of things, such as curds from whey, meat from stock or honeycombs from honey. We decided to test the cheese-making hypothesis by analysing the lipids trapped into the ceramic fabric of the sieves.

"The presence of milk residues in sieves (which look like modern cheese-strainers) constitutes the earliest direct evidence for cheese-making. So far, early evidence for cheese-making were mostly iconographic, that is to say murals showing milk processing, which dates to several millennia later than the cheese strainers."

Peter Bogucki one of the co-authors of this new study and proponent of the cheese strainer hypothesis nearly 30 years ago notes that: "As well as showing that humans were making cheese 7,000 years ago, these results provide evidence of the consumption of low-lactose content milk products in Prehistory.

"Making cheese allowed them to reduce the lactose content of milk, and we know that at that time, most of the humans were not tolerant to lactose. Making cheese is a particularly efficient way to exploit the nutritional benefits of milk, without becoming ill because of the lactose."

The leader of the Bristol team, Professor Richard Evershed added: "It is truly remarkable the depth of insights into ancient human diet and food processing technologies these ancient fats preserved in archaeological ceramics are now providing us with!"

If you would like to learn more about similar research in which ancient biomolecules and isotopes has been used to shed new light on the past please visit 'The Palaeodetectives' here 'Earliest evidence for cheese making in the sixth millennium BC in northern Europe' by Melanie Salque, Peter I. Bogucki, Joanna Pyzel, Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka, Ryszard Grygiel, Marzena Szmyt and Richard P. Evershed in Nature.

.


Related Links
University of Bristol
Farming Today - Suppliers and Technology






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

Get Our Free Newsletters
Space - Defense - Environment - Energy - Solar - Nuclear

...





FARM NEWS
Supporting Climate-Friendly Food Production
Washington DC (SPX) Dec 12, 2012
This summer, record temperatures and limited rainfall parched vast areas of U.S. cropland, and with Earth's surface air temperature projected to rise 0.69 degrees Celsius by 2030, global food production will be even more unpredictable, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute. Although agriculture is a major driver of human-caused climate change, contributing an esti ... read more


FARM NEWS
Shadows on ice: Proba-1 images Concordia south polar base

Wildfires Light Up Western Australia

Environmental satellite produces first photo of Earth

Google Maps returns to iPhone after Apple fiasco

FARM NEWS
Third Boeing GPS IIF Begins Operation After Early Handover to USAF

Putin Urges CIS Countries to Join Glonass

Third Galileo satellite begins transmitting navigation signal

Retired GIOVE-A satellite helps SSTL demonstrate first High Altitude GPS navigation fix

FARM NEWS
Cloud forest trees drink water through their leaves

More bang for bugs

Warming climate unlikely to cause extinction of ancient Amazon trees

Xmas tree genome very much the same over the last 100 million years

FARM NEWS
NC State Study Offers Insight Into Converting Wood to Bio-Oil

Can Algae-Derived Oils Support Large-Scale, Low-Cost Biofuels Production?

Plastic packaging industry is moving towards completely bio-based products

Gases from Grasses

FARM NEWS
Solar panel companies in federal probe

Gulf oil states get hot for solar power

Asian Supermarket Distribution Center Completes Solar Installation

KYOCERA Solar Panels Power Innovative Solar-to-EV Project with Smart City San Diego at San Diego Zoo

FARM NEWS
Ground broken on Irish Midlands wind farm

GE, MetLife and Union Bank Invest in Kansas Wind Farm

Wind speeds in southern New England declining inland, remaining steady on coast

Brazil advances wind power development

FARM NEWS
China mine blast kills 17: state media

China mine blast toll rises to 23

China mine blast kills 18: state media

US shale gas drives up coal exports

FARM NEWS
Testing time for China's migrant millions

China gives hijackers death sentences

US lawmakers, Chinese friends seek Liu Xiaobo release

Top China provincial leader sacked: Xinhua




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement