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Cheese and other dairy products were established in northern Mongolia at least 3,300 years ago, according to a new study.
The man and the cheese go back very far in time and for a very good reason: the cheese allowed the man to store a very nutritious food (milk) in a form that remains edible longer; the delicious taste is a significant bonus. But if archaeologists have uncovered very old evidence of cheese making, we still do not know when and how different crops started making cheese and similar dairy products.
The oldest direct evidence of cheese making dates back to 5500 BC J.-C. in Kujawy, Poland. The dairy industry existed around 4000 BC in the Sahara grasslands, and the Egyptians made cheese at least 3,200 years ago. Now, a new study adds to our understanding of ancient cheese, showing that Mongolians made cheese in 1300 BC.
The people of Mongolia lived a pastoral and dairy lifestyle for thousands of years, which allowed them at one point to conquer much of Asia and Europe under Genghis. Khan.
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The study traced milk proteins into tooth scale. The milk proteins confirmed that the dairy products had been consumed at that time. In addition, whey and curd proteins were also recovered, indicating that people were not only drinking milk.
Milk protein preserved in tooth scale is the first direct evidence of dairy pastoralism in Mongolia. Image credits: Christina Warinner.
The proteins analyzed showed that the animals being milked (cattle, goats and sheep) are not native to the region and have probably been introduced from the west. However, the researchers also performed a DNA analysis of the Mongols who lived at the time (and whose graves were recently discovered), showing very few genetic contributions from Western shepherds. This suggests that the dairy techniques were transferred culturally and not by people who moved from west to east and settled in Mongolia.
"These findings suggest that pastoralists of the neighboring western steppes have directly or indirectly introduced dairy pastoralism to local indigenous populations, primarily through a process of cultural exchange," says Choongwon Jeong, co-prime author and co-principal author of the Max Planck Institute for Science of Science. The human history. "We see no evidence of the type of large-scale population replacement by Western Steppe shepherds observed in Bronze Age Europe or in the neighboring region of Altai-Sayan. . "
Interestingly, none of the individuals were genetically capable of digesting lactose from milk sugar. Today, most Mongolians are also not persistent with lactase, although they consume much of their diet in the form of dairy products.
The human remains came from the so-called Deer Stone-Khirigsuur complex (DSKC). A recent study of the same people showed that 3,000 years ago, Mongolians were able to operate basic animal dentistry, a world first.
"The DSKC is well known for its monumental architecture, including stones with deer and other motifs, as well as large stone mounds, often associated with one or more human burials," says co-lead author Shevan Wilkin. from the Max Planck Institute Science of Human History. "In some places, these structures are very remarkable and visible from far away."
The burial mounds of the Bronze Age, known as khirigsuurs, are associated with the early Mongol pastors. Image credits: Bruno Frohlich.
In the end, this presents an interesting scenario, that of significant cultural mobility in the Mongolian steppes – which could also allow researchers to understand similar situations in other parts of the world.
"The 3,000-year legacy of dairy pastoralism in Mongolia raises difficult questions for major narratives of human adaptation and natural selection," says Christina Warinner, lead author of the Max Planck Institute for science of human history. "As a lactase-free, persistent dairy society with rich prehistory, Mongolia can serve as a model for understanding how other adaptations, such as cultural practices or microbiome modifications, may be involved in activation. and the maintenance of dairy-based kitchens around the world ".
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