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But you will not want to eat this cheese. After all, he is 7,200 years old. And this is not even the cheese but the fatty residue of the fermented dairy products manufacturing. It has been found inside potteries designed to make and contain soft cheeses and yoghurt.
"This is driving back 4,000 year old cheese making," said Sarah B. McClure, author of the study and associate professor of anthropology at Penn State.
According to the study, it is the oldest documented evidence of lipid residues for fermented dairy products in the Mediterranean region and among the oldest documented to date. Before this direct proof, there existed only a few recovered tools and literary references to cheese.
An international team of researchers examined the pottery of two Neolithic villages in Croatia, Pokrovnik and Danilo Bitinj. They examined washed and unwashed pottery, using radiocarbon dating on other items, such as bones and seeds, recovered from the sites to help date the pottery. The testing of carbon isotopes determined whether the pottery contained meat, fish, milk or fermented milk products.
The milk was found in the pottery of the region 7,700 years ago, about 500 years before the presence of fermented products. The DNA analysis of the population shows that adults were lactose intolerant at the time, but that their children could drink milk up to the age of 10 years.
"First, we have [the process of] It has been said that Mr. McClure said, "It would not be a surprise for people to give milk to another mammal to children."
In times of drought or shortage, milk would have been a good substitute for water, according to the study.
Milk, yogurt and cheeses also influenced the style of pottery used to contain them. At the beginning of the Neolothic period, "printed articles" were used to contain meat, fish and milk.
Five hundred years later, in 5200 BC. AD, Danilo pottery was developed with several styles for different purposes. Figulina, which contained milk, animal fats and fish, was decorated and buff colored. Rhyta, which contained cheese, had distinct handles and large side openings and usually had the shape of animals or humans. And the sieves were used to filter the milk after being separated into curds and whey.
"Cheese production is important enough for people to make new types of cookware," said McClure. "We are witnessing this cultural change."
The production of milk and cheese would have been a byproduct of agriculture. The milk was rich in nutrients, fats, protein and calories, and it was storable. In case of famine, epidemic or drought or between crops, milk and cheese would have helped farmers and their families to survive. And the fermentation of cheese and yogurt milk would reduce the lactose content of lactose intolerant people.
Researchers also believe that the availability of milk and dairy products would have helped children in high-risk populations survive and even allow them to be weaned earlier, which would increase their birth rate.
Due to the survival of children who grew up drinking milk and eating cheese and yogurt, tolerance for dairy products and other benefits continued for future generations. The researchers also believe that this reduction in infant mortality and the addition of dairy resources have allowed farming communities to expand to colder and northern climates, resulting in demographic changes.
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