Detecting milk proteins in ancient pots

Oliver Craig (), Jacqui Mulville, Mike Parker Pearson, Robert Sokol, Keith Gelsthorpe, Rebecca Stacey and Matthew Collins
Additional contact information
Oliver Craig: Fossil Fuels and Environmental Geochemistry, NRG, Drummond Building, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Jacqui Mulville: English Heritage, Oxford University Museum
Mike Parker Pearson: University of Sheffield
Robert Sokol: Regional Blood Transfusion Centre
Keith Gelsthorpe: Regional Blood Transfusion Centre
Rebecca Stacey: University of Bradford
Matthew Collins: Fossil Fuels and Environmental Geochemistry, NRG, Drummond Building, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Nature, 2000, vol. 408, issue 6810, 312-312

Abstract: Abstract Deciding whether to farm cattle for milk or beef was just as complex in the past as it is today. Compared with meat production, dairying is a high-input, high-output, high-risk operation indicative of an intensive, sophisticated economy, but this practice is notoriously difficult to demonstrate in the archaeological record1. Here we provide evidence for the presence of milk proteins preserved in prehistoric vessels, which to our knowledge have not been detected before. This finding resolves the controversy that has surrounded dairying on the Scottish Atlantic coast during the Iron Age2,3,4,5 and indicates that farming by the early inhabitants of this harsh, marginal environment was surprisingly well developed.

Date: 2000
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DOI: 10.1038/35042684

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