Importance of the first glass of milk

Such an everyday gesture as drinking a glass of milk is the subject of research of paramount importance. When shopping, it’s hard for us to imagine a supermarket without milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, or any other dairy product. In Europe and other parts of the world, milk is a staple food, we consume it daily, and it has undeniable economic value for the food industry. But it was not always so.

The consumption of milk and other dairy products was a radical change for Homo sapiens which has repercussions to this day. Knowing when its consumption began, which groups of people were first and what benefits it entailed is critical to understanding our habits and deciphering the problems of lactose intolerance that persist in our time.

Milk and honey leave no trace

The remains of buildings, pottery and stone, bone or metal tools are the main allies of the archaeologist in the study of the customs and practices of our ancestors. Animal bones and plant remains are often found in archaeological sites, which makes it possible to determine what was eaten and how it was prepared. So we know what they ate at different times in history and when some of the most important foods in our current diet were introduced.

However, in some cases, finding traces of these products is not easy. Milk or honey, for example, do not leave “visible marks”. But there is another way to define them.

Archaeologists can answer these questions by analyzing the first vessels used to drink or cook food with milk in prehistoric times.

The first ceramic vessels

Growing cereals and raising domestic animals began about 10,000 years ago. Nowadays, groups of people are no longer exclusively hunters, gatherers and fishermen. This change took place in the Middle East and then spread throughout Europe. It might seem insignificant, but it was a transcendent change for humanity.

At that time, we started eating new foods, changed our lifestyle, changed our relationship with each other, and changed the environment.

All these changes did not occur simultaneously, but led to different dynamics depending on geographical areas.

Also since that time, ceramic vessels have become widespread, which began to appear in large numbers at the excavations of archaeological sites of that time. It was these containers that made it possible to study the first traces of the use of dairy products.

Ceramics is a technology that allows the production of containers of various shapes, used primarily for the preparation and storage of food and drinks. These vessels allow food to be heated and cooked directly over the fire, resulting in leftovers not normally visible to archaeologists.

In exceptional cases, we can directly see the remains of food, although in most cases this is not possible! However, we have found a way to extract the information we are looking for.

Traces of milk in micropores

When a ceramic vessel is made by hand, the clay is mixed with stone fragments or other degreasing materials and water so that it can be shaped into the desired shape. After the container is made, it must be cooked on fire so that the clay hardens and retains its shape. This process is fundamental to keeping the “leftovers” of food inside.

When clay is molded, a series of pores are formed, which are “empty” spaces that come into contact with food and “encapsulate” biomolecules, lipids, characteristic of various types of food. These lipids are basically “fats”, oils or triglycerides found in food.

In the laboratory, we can extract these fats from fragments and ceramic vessels found in archaeological excavations. For this, archeology and organic chemistry are combined. Based on the chemical properties of lipids, extraction methods have been developed that allow them to be extracted and their molecular and isotopic composition analyzed to find out what food was cooked in the container.

First glasses of milk

The introduction and application of these methods of biomolecular analysis in the study of archaeological pottery allows us to answer some questions about the origin of food, including milk.

We now know that milk was consumed 7,000 years ago in the Middle East and later in the rest of Europe. But the most interesting thing is that when they began to drink and boil milk, prehistoric populations were intolerant.

So why did they consume food that made them uncomfortable? Differences in milk consumption in prehistoric times in different parts of the continent have led researchers to put forward hypotheses related to population health and other factors such as famines or periods of food shortages.

Combining these assays with other lines of research, such as DNA, to pinpoint exactly when the genetic mutation occurs that makes lactose tolerance possible is promising and will no doubt contribute to understanding when, how, and why lactose tolerance occurs. Milk has changed our lives.

Miriam Cubas Morera, Researcher Ramon y Cajal, University of Alcalá, and Marta Frances-Negro, Research Fellow, University of Burgos

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.

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