Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.
Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2020 Mar;4(3):346-355. doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-1120-y. Epub 2020 Mar 2.
Dairy pastoralism is integral to contemporary and past lifeways on the eastern Eurasian steppe, facilitating survival in agriculturally challenging environments. While previous research has indicated that ruminant dairy pastoralism was practiced in the region by circa 1300 BC, the origin, extent and diversity of this custom remain poorly understood. Here, we analyse ancient proteins from human dental calculus recovered from geographically diverse locations across Mongolia and spanning 5,000 years. We present the earliest evidence for dairy consumption on the eastern Eurasian steppe by circa 3000 BC and the later emergence of horse milking at circa 1200 BC, concurrent with the first evidence for horse riding. We argue that ruminant dairying contributed to the demographic success of Bronze Age Mongolian populations and that the origins of traditional horse dairy products in eastern Eurasia are closely tied to the regional emergence of mounted herding societies during the late second millennium BC.
乳业畜牧业是欧亚大陆东部草原地区现代和过去生活方式的重要组成部分，有助于在农业挑战环境中生存。虽然之前的研究表明，大约公元前 1300 年，该地区就已经存在反刍动物乳用畜牧业，但这种习俗的起源、范围和多样性仍知之甚少。在这里，我们分析了从古蒙古各地地理分布广泛的人类牙垢中提取的古代蛋白质，时间跨度为 5000 年。我们提出了大约公元前 3000 年在欧亚大陆东部草原地区最早的乳制品消费证据，以及大约公元前 1200 年出现的马奶，这与骑马的最早证据同时出现。我们认为反刍动物的奶制品促成了青铜时代蒙古人口的人口增长，而欧亚大陆东部传统马奶产品的起源与公元前 2000 年末期地区性出现骑马畜牧社会密切相关。
