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Scientists have discovered the first evidence of cheese making in the Mediterranean along the Dalmatian coast of Croatia.
The remains of fat left inside the old pottery suggest that the inhabitants of the Middle Neolithic made cheese from 7,200 years old.
"It's a rollback in the making of 4,000-year-old cheese," said Sarah B. McClure, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Penn State University, in a press release.
As the new analysis confirms, the emergence of cheese making is a shift in pottery technology.
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"Cheese production is important enough for people to make new types of cookware," said McClure. "We are seeing this cultural change."
At the beginning of the Neolithic, the Dalmatian coast populations produced pottery "in print". But during the Middle Neolithic, from 4700 to 3900 BC. BC, the inhabitants of the Croatian coast made and used pottery known as Danilo, of which there are three subtypes.
Scientists believe that two of the subtypes, rhyta and sieves, were used for cheese making. Archaeologists have analyzed the fat deposits from pieces of pottery found at two major archaeological sites in Dalmatia, Pokrovnik and Danilo Bitinj.
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The analysis of carbon isotopes revealed the presence of cheese on several pottery samples. Radiocarbon dating of bones and seeds from excavation sites confirmed the age of the pottery pieces.
"This is the oldest documented evidence of lipid residues for fermented dairy products in the Mediterranean region, and among the oldest documented to date," wrote the researchers in their study published this week in the journal PLOS One.
Previous DNA studies suggest that adults in the region were primarily lactose intolerant, but children could consume dairy products until they were ten years old. By fermenting dairy products and producing cheese, Middle Neolithic farmers were able to produce a more stable and storable dairy product with reduced lactose content – a safe source of nutrition for adults and children.
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More consistent sources of nutrition have allowed farmers to grow in climates with more variable conditions.
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