Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus
Milk is a major food of global economic importance, and its consumption is regarded as a classic example ofgene-culture evolution. Humans have exploited animal milk as a food resource for at least 8500 years, but theorigins, spread, and scale of dairying remain poorly understood. Indirect lines of e...
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48060 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep07104 |
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ftcurtin:oai:espace.curtin.edu.au:20.500.11937/48060 2023-06-11T04:12:17+02:00 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. Swallow, D. Fotakis, A. Christensen, R. Olsen, J. Liebert, A. Montalva, N. Fiddyment, S. Charlton, S. Mackie, M. Canci, A. Bouwman, A. Ruhli, F. Gilbert, Thomas Collins, M. 2014 unknown https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48060 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep07104 unknown Nature Publishing Group http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48060 doi:10.1038/srep07104 Journal Article 2014 ftcurtin https://doi.org/20.500.11937/4806010.1038/srep07104 2023-05-30T19:45:31Z Milk is a major food of global economic importance, and its consumption is regarded as a classic example ofgene-culture evolution. Humans have exploited animal milk as a food resource for at least 8500 years, but theorigins, spread, and scale of dairying remain poorly understood. Indirect lines of evidence, such as lipidisotopic 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 humansconsumed milk products, it is necessary to link evidence of consumption directly to individuals and theirdairy livestock. Here we report the first direct evidence of milk consumption, the whey proteinb-lactoglobulin (BLG), preserved in human dental calculus from the Bronze Age (ca. 3000 BCE) to thepresent day. Using protein tandem mass spectrometry, we demonstrate that BLG is a species-specificbiomarker of dairy consumption, and we identify individuals consuming cattle, sheep, and goat milkproducts in the archaeological record. We then apply this method to human dental calculus fromGreenland’s medieval Norse colonies, and report a decline of this biomarker leading up to the abandonmentof the Norse Greenland colonies in the 15th century CE. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Curtin University: espace Greenland Scientific Reports 4 1 |
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Milk is a major food of global economic importance, and its consumption is regarded as a classic example ofgene-culture evolution. Humans have exploited animal milk as a food resource for at least 8500 years, but theorigins, spread, and scale of dairying remain poorly understood. Indirect lines of evidence, such as lipidisotopic 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 humansconsumed milk products, it is necessary to link evidence of consumption directly to individuals and theirdairy livestock. Here we report the first direct evidence of milk consumption, the whey proteinb-lactoglobulin (BLG), preserved in human dental calculus from the Bronze Age (ca. 3000 BCE) to thepresent day. Using protein tandem mass spectrometry, we demonstrate that BLG is a species-specificbiomarker of dairy consumption, and we identify individuals consuming cattle, sheep, and goat milkproducts in the archaeological record. We then apply this method to human dental calculus fromGreenland’s medieval Norse colonies, and report a decline of this biomarker leading up to the abandonmentof the Norse Greenland colonies in the 15th century CE. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Warinner, C. Hendy, J. Speller, C. Cappellini, E. Fischer, R. Trachsel, C. Arneborg, J. Lynnerup, N. Craig, O. Swallow, D. Fotakis, A. Christensen, R. Olsen, J. Liebert, A. Montalva, N. Fiddyment, S. Charlton, S. Mackie, M. Canci, A. Bouwman, A. Ruhli, F. Gilbert, Thomas Collins, M. |
spellingShingle |
Warinner, C. Hendy, J. Speller, C. Cappellini, E. Fischer, R. Trachsel, C. Arneborg, J. Lynnerup, N. Craig, O. Swallow, D. Fotakis, A. Christensen, R. Olsen, J. Liebert, A. Montalva, N. Fiddyment, S. Charlton, S. Mackie, M. Canci, A. Bouwman, A. Ruhli, F. Gilbert, Thomas Collins, M. Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus |
author_facet |
Warinner, C. Hendy, J. Speller, C. Cappellini, E. Fischer, R. Trachsel, C. Arneborg, J. Lynnerup, N. Craig, O. Swallow, D. Fotakis, A. Christensen, R. Olsen, J. Liebert, A. Montalva, N. Fiddyment, S. Charlton, S. Mackie, M. Canci, A. Bouwman, A. Ruhli, F. Gilbert, Thomas Collins, M. |
author_sort |
Warinner, C. |
title |
Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus |
title_short |
Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus |
title_full |
Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus |
title_fullStr |
Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus |
title_full_unstemmed |
Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus |
title_sort |
direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48060 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep07104 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland |
genre_facet |
Greenland |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48060 doi:10.1038/srep07104 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11937/4806010.1038/srep07104 |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1768388029056024576 |