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Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus

Warinner, C., Hendy, J., Speller, C., Cappellini, E., Fischer, R., Trachsel, C., Arneborg, J., Lynnerup, N., Craig, O. E., Swallow, D. M., Fotakis, A., Christensen, R. J., Olsen, J. V., Liebert, A., Montalva, N., Fiddyment, S., Charlton, S., Mackie, M., Canci, A., Bouwman, A., Rühli, F., Gilbert, M. T. P., Collins, M. J.·2014·Scientific Reports
DOI 10.1038/srep07104PMC PMC4245811
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Abstract

Milk is a major food of global economic importance and its consumption is regarded as a classic example of gene-culture evolution. Humans have exploited animal milk as a food resource for at least 8500 years, but the origins, spread and scale of dairying remain poorly understood. Indirect lines of evidence, such as lipid isotopic ratios of pottery residues, faunal mortality profiles and lactase persistence allele frequencies, provide a partial picture of this process; however, in order to understand how, where and when humans consumed milk products, it is necessary to link evidence of consumption directly to individuals and their dairy livestock. Here we report the first direct evidence of milk consumption, the whey protein β-lactoglobulin (BLG), preserved in human dental calculus from the Bronze Age (ca. 3000 BCE) to the present day. Using protein tandem mass spectrometry, we demonstrate that BLG is a species-specific biomarker of dairy consumption and we identify individuals consuming cattle, sheep and goat milk products in the archaeological record. We then apply this method to human dental calculus from Greenland's medieval Norse colonies and report a decline of this biomarker leading up to the abandonment of the Norse Greenland colonies in the 15 th century CE.

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  • Ancient protein analysis has been particularly informative in exploring past patterns of dairy consumption.

    “Where this technique has been particularly informative is in exploring past patterns of dairy consumption (108–112).”

    From Ancient protein analysis in archaeology (2021) · cites this paper as [108]

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Research works printed but not linked: 32

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Metadata

Authors
Warinner, C., Hendy, J., Speller, C., Cappellini, E., Fischer, R., Trachsel, C., Arneborg, J., Lynnerup, N., Craig, O. E., Swallow, D. M., Fotakis, A., Christensen, R. J., Olsen, J. V., Liebert, A., Montalva, N., Fiddyment, S., Charlton, S., Mackie, M., Canci, A., Bouwman, A., Rühli, F., Gilbert, M. T. P., & Collins, M. J.
Venue
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2014-11-27
Volume
4
Issue
1
ISSN
2045-2322
DOI
10.1038/srep07104
PMC
PMC4245811
Cited by
216
References
3
Language
en
Licence

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