stone age brits got milk

Six thousand years ago, neolithic Brits might have enjoyed sips of milk with their steaming haunches of meat. Researchers from England’s University of Bristol report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they have discovered milk-fat residue on 6000-year-old pottery fragments. It is the earliest direct evidence of dairy farming ever found. Until now, it has been difficult to tell meat fat from milk fat. The breakthrough occurred when the researchers discovered that milk fats contain different ratios of the stable isotopes of carbon (carbon-12 and carbon-13) compared to meat fat. While the chemical analysis definitely proves the existence of dairy fat, the researchers don’t yet know how the milk was used. Considering milk’s short shelf life, it’s probable the ancient Britons were making and eating butter, cheese, or yogurt.

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 2/04/2003.