Did the first farmers of central and eastern Europe produce dairy foods?

Although the origins of domestic animals have been well-documented, it is unclear when livestock were first exploited for secondary products, such as milk. The analysis of remnant fats preserved in ceramic vessels from two agricultural sites in central and eastern Europe dating to the Early Neolithic (5900-5500 cal BC) are best explained by the presence of milk residues. On this basis, the authors suggest that dairying featured in early European farming economies. The evidence is evaluated in the light of analysis of faunal remains from this region to determine the scale of dairying. It is suggested that dairying — perhaps of sheep or goats — was initially practised on a small scale and was part of a broad mixed economy.

[1]  A. Whittle,et al.  Body Part Representation and Seasonality: Sheep/Goat, Bird and Fish Remains From Early Neolithic Ecsegfalva 23, SE Hungary , 2004 .

[2]  M. Midgley.  TRB Culture. The First Farmers of the North European Plain. , 1994 .

[3]  P. Bogucki.  The Antiquity of Dairying in Temperate Europe , 1986 .

[4]  O. Craig.  The development of dairying in Europe: potential evidence from food residues on ceramics , 2002 .

[5]  P. Halstead.  Mortality models and milking : problems of uniformitarianism, optimality and equifinality reconsidered , 1998 .

[6]  P. Pettitt,et al.  In the beginning : new radiocarbon dates for the Early Neolithic in northern Serbia and south-east Hungary. , 2002 .

[7]  D. Harkness,et al.  Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in the Iron Gates: A Paiaeodietary Perspective , 1997 .

[8]  Richard P. Evershed,et al.  QUANTIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF LIPID IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL CERAMICS: IMPLICATIONS FOR SAMPLING POTSHERDS FOR ORGANIC RESIDUE ANALYSIS AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF VESSEL USE , 1993 .

[9]  P. Bogucki.  CERAMIC SIEVES OF THE LINEAR POTTERY CULTURE AND THEIR ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS , 1984 .

[10]  R. Evershed,et al.  Evidence for Varying Patterns of Exploitation of Animal Products in Different Prehistoric Pottery Traditions Based on Lipids Preserved in Surface and Absorbed Residues , 1999 .

[11]  S. Payne.  Kill-off Patterns in Sheep and Goats: the Mandibles from Aşvan Kale , 1973, Anatolian Studies.

[12]  A. Whittle.  Europe in the Neolithic: The Creation of New Worlds , 1998 .

[13]  G. Luikart,et al.  Gene-culture coevolution between cattle milk protein genes and human lactase genes , 2003, Nature Genetics.

[14]  Anna J. Mukherjee,et al.  Direct chemical evidence for widespread dairying in prehistoric Britain , 2003, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[15]  Evershed,et al.  Direct demonstration of milk as an element of archaeological economies , 1998, Science.

[16]  H. Greenfield.  The Origins of Milk and Wool Production in the Old World: A Zooarchaeological Perspective from the Central Balkans [and Comments] , 1988, Current Anthropology.

[17]  P. Bogucki.  The Spread of Early Farming in Europe , 1996 .

[18]  M. Collins,et al.  An improved method for the immunological detection of mineral bound protein using hydrofluoric acid and direct capture. , 2000, Journal of immunological methods.

[19]  M. Macklin,et al.  Climate, floods and river gods , 2002 .

[20]  D. Bradley,et al.  A microsatellite survey of cattle from a centre of origin: the Near East , 1999, Molecular ecology.

[21]  S Charters,et al.  Formation of long-chain ketones in ancient pottery vessels by pyrolysis of acyl lipids , 1995 .

[22]  R. Evershed,et al.  Formation of long-chain ketones in archaeological pottery vessels by pyrolysis of acyl lipids , 1997 .

[23]  R. Noble.  DIGESTION, ABSORPTION AND TRANSPORT OF LIPIDS IN RUMINANT ANIMALS , 1981 .

[24]  A. Sherratt.  The Secondary Exploitation of Animals in the Old World in Transhumance and Pastoralism. , 1983 .

[25]  R. Evershed,et al.  Identification of animal fats via compound specific δ13C values of individual fatty acids: assessments of results for reference fats and lipid extracts of archaeological pottery vessels , 2002 .

[26]  H. Friedli,et al.  Ice core record of the 13C/12C ratio of atmospheric CO2 in the past two centuries , 1986, Nature.

[27]  W. Holmes.  Animals for food , 1970, Proceedings of the Nutrition Society.

[28]  Alasdair Whittle.  The Early Neolithic on the Great Hungarian Plain : investigations of the Körös culture site of Ecsegfalva 23, County Békés , 2007 .

[29]  J. Chapman.  The Secondary Products Revolution and the Limitations of the Neolithic , 1982 .

[30]  Verzekeren Naar Sparen,et al.  Cambridge , 1969, Humphrey Burton: In My Own Time.

[31]  M. Veen.  The plant remains , 1987, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.

[32]  David A. Magee,et al.  Genetic evidence for Near-Eastern origins of European cattle , 2001, Nature.

[33]  A. Sherratt.  Economy and Society in Prehistoric Europe: Changing Perspectives , 1997 .