Evershed Richard P, Payne Sebastian, Sherratt Andrew G, Copley Mark S, Coolidge Jennifer, Urem-Kotsu Duska, Kotsakis Kostas, Ozdoğan Mehmet, Ozdoğan Aslý E, Nieuwenhuyse Olivier, Akkermans Peter M M G, Bailey Douglass, Andeescu Radian-Romus, Campbell Stuart, Farid Shahina, Hodder Ian, Yalman Nurcan, Ozbaşaran Mihriban, Biçakci Erhan, Garfinkel Yossef, Levy Thomas, Burton Margie M
Organic Geochemistry Unit, Bristol Biogeochemistry Research Centre, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK.
Nature. 2008 Sep 25;455(7212):528-31. doi: 10.1038/nature07180. Epub 2008 Aug 6.
The domestication of cattle, sheep and goats had already taken place in the Near East by the eighth millennium bc. Although there would have been considerable economic and nutritional gains from using these animals for their milk and other products from living animals-that is, traction and wool-the first clear evidence for these appears much later, from the late fifth and fourth millennia bc. Hence, the timing and region in which milking was first practised remain unknown. Organic residues preserved in archaeological pottery have provided direct evidence for the use of milk in the fourth millennium in Britain, and in the sixth millennium in eastern Europe, based on the delta(13)C values of the major fatty acids of milk fat. Here we apply this approach to more than 2,200 pottery vessels from sites in the Near East and southeastern Europe dating from the fifth to the seventh millennia bc. We show that milk was in use by the seventh millennium; this is the earliest direct evidence to date. Milking was particularly important in northwestern Anatolia, pointing to regional differences linked with conditions more favourable to cattle compared to other regions, where sheep and goats were relatively common and milk use less important. The latter is supported by correlations between the fat type and animal bone evidence.
公元前八千年，近东地区就已经开始驯化牛、绵羊和山羊。尽管用这些动物获取牛奶和其他活体动物产品（即畜力和羊毛）会带来可观的经济和营养收益，但关于这些用途的首个明确证据出现得要晚得多，始于公元前五至四千年晚期。因此，首次实行挤奶的时间和地区仍然不明。考古陶器中保存的有机残留物，基于乳脂肪主要脂肪酸的δ(13)C值，为公元前四千年英国以及公元前六千年东欧使用牛奶提供了直接证据。在此，我们将这种方法应用于来自近东和东南欧遗址的2200多个陶器，这些陶器的年代可追溯到公元前五至七千年。我们发现，到公元前七千年牛奶已被使用；这是迄今为止最早的直接证据。挤奶在安纳托利亚西北部尤为重要，这表明与其他地区存在区域差异，其他地区绵羊和山羊相对常见，牛奶的使用没那么重要，而安纳托利亚西北部的条件对牛更有利。脂肪类型与动物骨骼证据之间的相关性支持了后者。
