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 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...
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Online Access: | https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/84400/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/84400/1/srep07104_2_.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/srep07104 |
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ftleedsuniv:oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:84400 2024-05-19T07:41:22+00:00 Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus Warinner, Christina Hendy, Jessica Ruth Speller, Camilla Filomena Cappellini, Enrico Fischer, Roman Trachsel, Christian Arneborg, J Lynnerup, N. Craig, Oliver Edward Swallow, DM Fotakis, Anna Christensen, RJ Olsen, JV Liebert, A Montalva, N Fiddyment, Sarah Charlton, Sophy Jessica Laura Mackie, Meaghan Canci, A Bouwman, Abigail Rühli, Frank Gilbert, M. Thomas P. Collins, Matthew James 2014-11-27 text https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/84400/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/84400/1/srep07104_2_.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/srep07104 en eng https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/84400/1/srep07104_2_.pdf Warinner, Christina, Hendy, Jessica Ruth orcid.org/0000-0002-3718-1058 , Speller, Camilla Filomena orcid.org/0000-0001-7128-9903 et al. (20 more authors) (2014) Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus. Scientific Reports. 7104. ISSN 2045-2322 Article PeerReviewed 2014 ftleedsuniv https://doi.org/10.1038/srep07104 2024-04-30T23:35:04Z 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 15th century CE. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland White Rose Research Online (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield & York) Scientific Reports 4 1 |
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White Rose Research Online (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield & York) |
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ftleedsuniv |
language |
English |
description |
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 15th century CE. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Warinner, Christina Hendy, Jessica Ruth Speller, Camilla Filomena Cappellini, Enrico Fischer, Roman Trachsel, Christian Arneborg, J Lynnerup, N. Craig, Oliver Edward Swallow, DM Fotakis, Anna Christensen, RJ Olsen, JV Liebert, A Montalva, N Fiddyment, Sarah Charlton, Sophy Jessica Laura Mackie, Meaghan Canci, A Bouwman, Abigail Rühli, Frank Gilbert, M. Thomas P. Collins, Matthew James |
spellingShingle |
Warinner, Christina Hendy, Jessica Ruth Speller, Camilla Filomena Cappellini, Enrico Fischer, Roman Trachsel, Christian Arneborg, J Lynnerup, N. Craig, Oliver Edward Swallow, DM Fotakis, Anna Christensen, RJ Olsen, JV Liebert, A Montalva, N Fiddyment, Sarah Charlton, Sophy Jessica Laura Mackie, Meaghan Canci, A Bouwman, Abigail Rühli, Frank Gilbert, M. Thomas P. Collins, Matthew James Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus |
author_facet |
Warinner, Christina Hendy, Jessica Ruth Speller, Camilla Filomena Cappellini, Enrico Fischer, Roman Trachsel, Christian Arneborg, J Lynnerup, N. Craig, Oliver Edward Swallow, DM Fotakis, Anna Christensen, RJ Olsen, JV Liebert, A Montalva, N Fiddyment, Sarah Charlton, Sophy Jessica Laura Mackie, Meaghan Canci, A Bouwman, Abigail Rühli, Frank Gilbert, M. Thomas P. Collins, Matthew James |
author_sort |
Warinner, Christina |
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 |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/84400/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/84400/1/srep07104_2_.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/srep07104 |
genre |
Greenland |
genre_facet |
Greenland |
op_relation |
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/84400/1/srep07104_2_.pdf Warinner, Christina, Hendy, Jessica Ruth orcid.org/0000-0002-3718-1058 , Speller, Camilla Filomena orcid.org/0000-0001-7128-9903 et al. (20 more authors) (2014) Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus. Scientific Reports. 7104. ISSN 2045-2322 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep07104 |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1799480968953724928 |