Stone Age · 7th millennium BC · Zagros Mountains, Western Iran
Neolithic herders in Iran's Zagros Mountains used goat and sheep milk, study finds
Milk fats in pottery and milk proteins in dental plaque place dairying in western Iran in the seventh millennium BC, according to a Nature Human Behaviour study.
Peer-reviewed paper
Zagros Mountains, Western Iran Herders in the Zagros Mountains of Iran were processing and consuming goat and sheep milk in the seventh millennium BC. A study published in Nature Human Behaviour reports the finding.
A team of French and Iranian researchers studied Neolithic sites in the region. They found milk fats in pottery and milk proteins in the dental plaque of people from these sites. This gives direct evidence of dairy use there at that early date.
The Zagros range runs along western Iran. Around 9,000 years ago, communities in Southwest Asia began to settle in permanent villages. They moved from hunting and gathering to growing crops and herding animals. In the Zagros, goats and sheep were among the first animals brought under human control.
Archaeologists have long known that these herds supplied meat. Clear proof that people also used their milk has been harder to find.
Milk fats in the pots and milk proteins on the teeth
The team began with pottery. When milk is heated or stored in a pot, fats soak into the clay walls. These fats can survive for thousands of years.
The researchers extracted these lipid residues and analysed their chemical structure. The results matched the profile of milk from goats and sheep. Radiocarbon dating of some of the residues placed dairy processing at more than 8,000 years ago.
Residues in a pot show that milk was handled, but not who ate it. For that, the researchers turned to human teeth. Dental calculus is the hardened plaque that builds up on teeth. It traps tiny food particles and proteins, and traces can remain for millennia.
Laboratory tests identified milk proteins preserved in the calculus of several individuals. This is direct evidence that these people consumed dairy products.
The Archaeology News report on the study does not name the individual sites. It also gives no count of the vessels or individuals tested. It says only that "several" people had milk proteins in their calculus.
Animal bones point to herds kept for milk
Animal bones from the same sites support the chemical results. The age and sex patterns of the goat and sheep remains suggest herd management aimed at milk production. Many animals lived long enough to produce milk instead of being slaughtered young for meat.
The researchers combined four methods: lipid analysis of pottery, protein identification in dental calculus, the study of animal bones and radiocarbon dating. Together, these provide firm evidence for dairy use in the Zagros in the seventh millennium BC.
Humans have eaten meat for at least 2.6 million years. Direct proof of milk consumption appears much later in the archaeological record.
Milk is a steady food that can be taken from animals while they are still alive. Archaeology News notes that such a strategy would have supported growing village populations in the early Neolithic. It does not say how much of the diet dairy made up.
Goats and sheep in the Zagros, cattle in Anatolia
The Zagros results sit alongside evidence from Anatolia, in present-day Turkey. People there were using cattle milk in a similar period.
The two regions followed parallel paths. Herders in the Zagros relied mainly on goats and sheep, while in Anatolia cattle played a larger role. Both cases point to early and sustained dairy production during the spread of farming and herding.
Sources
- 9,000-year-old evidence of dairy use discovered in Iran’s Zagros Mountains (Archaeology News)
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