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First dairying in green Saharan Africa in the fifth millennium bc

Dunne, Julie, Evershed, Richard P., Salque, Mélanie, Cramp, Lucy, Bruni, Silvia, Ryan, Kathleen, Biagetti, Stefano, di Lernia, Savino·2012·Nature
DOI 10.1038/nature11186
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Abstract

In the prehistoric green Sahara of Holocene North Africa-in contrast to the Neolithic of Europe and Eurasia-a reliance on cattle, sheep and goats emerged as a stable and widespread way of life, long before the first evidence for domesticated plants or settled village farming communities. The remarkable rock art found widely across the region depicts cattle herding among early Saharan pastoral groups, and includes rare scenes of milking; however, these images can rarely be reliably dated. Although the faunal evidence provides further confirmation of the importance of cattle and other domesticates, the scarcity of cattle bones makes it impossible to ascertain herd structures via kill-off patterns, thereby precluding interpretations of whether dairying was practiced. Because pottery production begins early in northern Africa the potential exists to investigate diet and subsistence practices using molecular and isotopic analyses of absorbed food residues. This approach has been successful in determining the chronology of dairying beginning in the 'Fertile Crescent' of the Near East and its spread across Europe. Here we report the first unequivocal chemical evidence, based on the δ(13)C and Δ(13)C values of the major alkanoic acids of milk fat, for the adoption of dairying practices by prehistoric Saharan African people in the fifth millennium bc. Interpretations are supported by a new database of modern ruminant animal fats collected from Africa. These findings confirm the import…

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  • While analysis of fats, oils, and waxes is typically applied to ceramic material culture, analysis of proteins has potential to yield further insights into taxa used and food mixing.

    “While the analysis of fats, oils, and waxes is typically applied to this ceramic material culture [e.g., (113–116)], the analysis of proteins has the potential to yield further insights into the taxa used, as well as insights into food mixing (116).”

    From Ancient protein analysis in archaeology (2021) · cites this paper as [113]

  • The δ13C16:0 values of Mesopotamian vessels suggest that the ruminants they originated from had an increased C4 plant or marine input in their diet during their lifetime.

    “and their δ13C16:0 values suggest that the ruminants they originated from had an increased C4 plant or marine input in their diet during their lifetime [109,115].”

    From Identifying pastoral and plant products in local and imported pottery in Early Bronze Age southeastern Arabia (2025) · cites this paper as [115]

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Research works printed but not linked: 27

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Metadata

Authors
Dunne, J., Evershed, R. P., Salque, M., Cramp, L., Bruni, S., Ryan, K., Biagetti, S., & di Lernia, S.
Venue
Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2012-06
Volume
486
Issue
7403
Pages
390-394
ISSN
  • 0028-0836
  • 1476-4687
DOI
10.1038/nature11186
Cited by
352
References
3
Language
en
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)

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