Evidence of cheese production from 7,200 years ago in Croatia was found

Analysis of fat residues in pottery in the Dalmatian Sea shows that people here have made cheese and yogurt from about 7,200 years ago.

Scientists have found the presence of fat in pottery in Croatia's Dalmatian coast , which is clear evidence of the production of cheese and fermented yogurt from people in the past.

"This finding pushes the milestone of the first piece of cheese produced 4,000 years earlier," said Sarah B. McClure, associate professor of anthropology. By analyzing DNA from fossils of the inhabitants of the area, it is shown that adults consume very little dairy products, but children load a lot.

A pottery set in the middle of the Neolithic Age.(Photo: Sibenik City Museum).

'Although this land produces a lot of milk and dairy products, they are rarely used but only for children. Milk is abundant here, is a good source of nutritional hydration and does not contain germs , 'McClure added.

Whole milk is squeezed directly from cows or other animals, used directly about 7,700 years ago. But 500 years later, indigenous people knew how to ferment milk and contained them in beautifully decorated pottery pots.

Some pieces of pottery used to store food are found in Dalmatia.(Photo: Sibenik City Museum).

In the middle of the Neolithic Age, people used pottery with a different purpose, like food dishes. All pottery in this era has been found to contain residues of milk, animal fat and freshwater fish.

Some pieces of pottery function as screening objects, used to treat milk, cup frozen milk and fermented milk. Three of the four pieces were found to contain evidence of fermentation of milk to form another dish.

Types of pottery made from monolithic rocks in Dalmatian in the middle of the Neolithic Age.(Photo: McClure et al., 2018).

'This is the earliest evidence ever discovered for substance residues to make fermented milk in the Mediterranean and one of the earliest evidence found around the world,' the team said in his article.

The team unearthed and analyzed pottery samples in Pokrovnik and Danilo Bitinj, in the Dalmatia region of southwestern Croatia. From carbon isotopes in ceramics, they found fat and could distinguish it from meat or fish, milk or fermented products.

The archaeological site of Pokrovnik is located in a village in Dalmatia, Croatia.(Photo: Andrew MT Moore).

Researchers said that dairy products, especially cheese, helped the Nordic region expand cultivation due to reduced infant mortality and improved youth health, from which more manpower for agriculture.

This new food can be kept longer by fermentation to produce cheese and yogurt, which reduces the lactose content of milk, which also creates an appetite for both children and adults.