Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
Research Article

Regional asynchronicity in dairy production and processing in early farming communities of the northern Mediterranean

Cynthianne Debono Spiteri, Rosalind E. Gillis, Mélanie Roffet-Salque, Laura Castells Navarro, Jean Guilaine, Claire Manen, Italo M. Muntoni, View ORCID ProfileMaria Saña Segui, View ORCID ProfileDushka Urem-Kotsou, Helen L. Whelton, Oliver E. Craig, Jean-Denis Vigne, and Richard P. Evershed
  1. aDepartment of Archaeology, BioArCh, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
  2. bPlant Foods in Hominin Dietary Ecology Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany;
  3. cInstitut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelaters, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Schloss Hohentübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany;
  4. dUnité Mixte de Recherche 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 75005 Paris, France;
  5. eOrganic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom;
  6. fHuman and Social Sciences, Collège de France, 75005 Paris, France;
  7. gUnité Mixte de Recherche 5608, Travaux et Recherches Archéologiques sur les Cultures, les Espaces et les Sociétés, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Toulouse–Jean Jaurès, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 31059 Toulouse, France;
  8. hSoprintendenza Archeologia della Puglia, Centro Operativo per l’Archeologia della Daunia, 71100 Foggia, Italy;
  9. iDepartament de Prehistòria Edifici B, Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain;
  10. jDepartment of History and Ethnology, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini 694100, Greece

See allHide authors and affiliations

PNAS November 29, 2016 113 (48) 13594-13599; first published November 14, 2016; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1607810113
Cynthianne Debono Spiteri
aDepartment of Archaeology, BioArCh, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
bPlant Foods in Hominin Dietary Ecology Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany;
cInstitut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelaters, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Schloss Hohentübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Rosalind E. Gillis
dUnité Mixte de Recherche 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 75005 Paris, France;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: melanie.salque@bristol.ac.uk gillis@mnhn.fr
Mélanie Roffet-Salque
eOrganic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: melanie.salque@bristol.ac.uk gillis@mnhn.fr
Laura Castells Navarro
aDepartment of Archaeology, BioArCh, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jean Guilaine
fHuman and Social Sciences, Collège de France, 75005 Paris, France;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Claire Manen
gUnité Mixte de Recherche 5608, Travaux et Recherches Archéologiques sur les Cultures, les Espaces et les Sociétés, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Toulouse–Jean Jaurès, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 31059 Toulouse, France;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Italo M. Muntoni
hSoprintendenza Archeologia della Puglia, Centro Operativo per l’Archeologia della Daunia, 71100 Foggia, Italy;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Maria Saña Segui
iDepartament de Prehistòria Edifici B, Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Maria Saña Segui
Dushka Urem-Kotsou
jDepartment of History and Ethnology, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini 694100, Greece
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Dushka Urem-Kotsou
Helen L. Whelton
eOrganic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Oliver E. Craig
aDepartment of Archaeology, BioArCh, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jean-Denis Vigne
dUnité Mixte de Recherche 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 75005 Paris, France;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Richard P. Evershed
eOrganic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  1. Edited by Patricia L. Crown, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, and approved October 6, 2016 (received for review June 10, 2016)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Significance

This unique research combines the analyses of lipid residues in pottery vessels with slaughter profiles for domesticated ruminants to provide compelling evidence for diverse subsistence strategies in the northern Mediterranean basin during the Neolithic. Our findings show that the exploitation and processing of milk varied across the region, although most communities began to exploit milk as soon as domesticates were introduced between 9,000 and 7,000 y ago. This discovery is especially noteworthy as the shift in human subsistence toward milk production reshaped prehistoric European culture, biology, and economy in ways that are still visible today.

Abstract

In the absence of any direct evidence, the relative importance of meat and dairy productions to Neolithic prehistoric Mediterranean communities has been extensively debated. Here, we combine lipid residue analysis of ceramic vessels with osteo-archaeological age-at-death analysis from 82 northern Mediterranean and Near Eastern sites dating from the seventh to fifth millennia BC to address this question. The findings show variable intensities in dairy and nondairy activities in the Mediterranean region with the slaughter profiles of domesticated ruminants mirroring the results of the organic residue analyses. The finding of milk residues in very early Neolithic pottery (seventh millennium BC) from both the east and west of the region contrasts with much lower intensities in sites of northern Greece, where pig bones are present in higher frequencies compared with other locations. In this region, the slaughter profiles of all domesticated ruminants suggest meat production predominated. Overall, it appears that milk or the by-products of milk was an important foodstuff, which may have contributed significantly to the spread of these cultural groups by providing a nourishing and sustainable product for early farming communities.

  • archaeology
  • Neolithic
  • lipid residue analyses
  • archaeozoology
  • milk

Footnotes

  • ↵1C.D.S., R.E.G., and M.R.-S. contributed equally to this work.

  • ↵2To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: melanie.salque{at}bristol.ac.uk or gillis{at}mnhn.fr.
  • ↵3Present address: School of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, United Kingdom.

  • Author contributions: C.D.S., R.E.G., M.R.-S., O.E.C., J.-D.V., and R.P.E. designed research; R.E.G. performed the statistical archaeozoological analyses; C.D.S. and M.R.-S. performed the lipid residue analyses; C.D.S. and R.E.G. performed statistical analyses of the dataset; L.C.N., J.G., C.M., I.M.M., M.S.S., D.U.-K., and H.L.W. directed sampling of archaeological material, directed excavations, and helped with the archaeozoological studies or carried out lipid residue analyses; and C.D.S., R.E.G., M.R.-S., O.E.C., J.-D.V., and R.P.E. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1607810113/-/DCSupplemental.

View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Regional asynchronicity in dairy production and processing in early farming communities of the northern Mediterranean
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Dairying practices in the Neolithic Mediterranean
Cynthianne Debono Spiteri, Rosalind E. Gillis, Mélanie Roffet-Salque, Laura Castells Navarro, Jean Guilaine, Claire Manen, Italo M. Muntoni, Maria Saña Segui, Dushka Urem-Kotsou, Helen L. Whelton, Oliver E. Craig, Jean-Denis Vigne, Richard P. Evershed
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nov 2016, 113 (48) 13594-13599; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1607810113

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Dairying practices in the Neolithic Mediterranean
Cynthianne Debono Spiteri, Rosalind E. Gillis, Mélanie Roffet-Salque, Laura Castells Navarro, Jean Guilaine, Claire Manen, Italo M. Muntoni, Maria Saña Segui, Dushka Urem-Kotsou, Helen L. Whelton, Oliver E. Craig, Jean-Denis Vigne, Richard P. Evershed
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nov 2016, 113 (48) 13594-13599; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1607810113
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Article Classifications

  • Physical Sciences
  • Chemistry
  • Biological Sciences
  • Anthropology
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 113 (48)
Table of Contents

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Materials and Methods
    • Acknowledgments
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Smoke emanates from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant a few days after tsunami damage
Core Concept: Muography offers a new way to see inside a multitude of objects
Muons penetrate much further than X-rays, they do essentially zero damage, and they are provided for free by the cosmos.
Image credit: Science Source/Digital Globe.
Water from a faucet fills a glass.
News Feature: How “forever chemicals” might impair the immune system
Researchers are exploring whether these ubiquitous fluorinated molecules might worsen infections or hamper vaccine effectiveness.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Dmitry Naumov.
Venus flytrap captures a fly.
Journal Club: Venus flytrap mechanism could shed light on how plants sense touch
One protein seems to play a key role in touch sensitivity for flytraps and other meat-eating plants.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Kuttelvaserova Stuchelova.
Illustration of groups of people chatting
Exploring the length of human conversations
Adam Mastroianni and Daniel Gilbert explore why conversations almost never end when people want them to.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Panda bear hanging in a tree
How horse manure helps giant pandas tolerate cold
A study finds that giant pandas roll in horse manure to increase their cold tolerance.
Image credit: Fuwen Wei.

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Special Feature Articles – Most Recent
  • List of Issues

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Cozzarelli Prize
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates
  • FAQs
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Rights & Permissions
  • About
  • Contact

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490