Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.
Department of Archaeology, University of York, King's Manor, Exhibition Square, York, YO1 7EP, UK.
Nat Commun. 2021 Jan 27;12(1):632. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20682-3.
Consuming the milk of other species is a unique adaptation of Homo sapiens, with implications for health, birth spacing and evolution. Key questions nonetheless remain regarding the origins of dairying and its relationship to the genetically-determined ability to drink milk into adulthood through lactase persistence (LP). As a major centre of LP diversity, Africa is of significant interest to the evolution of dairying. Here we report proteomic evidence for milk consumption in ancient Africa. Using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) we identify dairy proteins in human dental calculus from northeastern Africa, directly demonstrating milk consumption at least six millennia ago. Our findings indicate that pastoralist groups were drinking milk as soon as herding spread into eastern Africa, at a time when the genetic adaptation for milk digestion was absent or rare. Our study links LP status in specific ancient individuals with direct evidence for their consumption of dairy products.
食用其他物种的奶是智人的独特适应，这对健康、生育间隔和进化都有影响。然而，关于畜牧业的起源及其与通过乳糖持续存在（LP）而在成年后能够饮用牛奶的基因决定能力之间的关系，仍有一些关键问题尚未得到解答。作为 LP 多样性的主要中心，非洲对畜牧业的进化具有重要意义。在这里，我们报告了古代非洲存在牛奶消费的蛋白质组学证据。我们使用液相色谱串联质谱（LC-MS/MS）在来自非洲东北部的人类牙垢中鉴定出了乳蛋白，直接证明了至少在六千年前就有了牛奶消费。我们的研究结果表明，早在放牧传播到东非时，牧民群体就已经开始饮用牛奶，而此时消化牛奶的基因适应性还不存在或很少见。我们的研究将特定古代个体的 LP 状态与他们食用乳制品的直接证据联系起来。
