Oldest evidence of cheese-making found in shards of vessels page

[Grok]

7,000-year-old pottery fragments poked with holes are the oldest direct evidence of cheese-making, scientists conclude.

By Rosie Mestel, Los Angeles Times December 12, 2012, 10:00 p.m.

The shards of old pottery are poked with little holes, remnants of vessels that would have looked a lot like colanders. Now scientists have determined that the fragments — more than 7,000 years old — are most likely from ancient cheese-making implements, used for separating curds from whey.

Evidence of ancient cheese-making found in shards of vessels - latimes.com

[SarahW]

I'm guessing, from the date and place, that the ethnic group this evidence come from was probably Celts.

Interesting discussion about lactose tolerance at the end. Perhaps the small amount of lactose in the cheese was what triggered the full-blown lactose tolerance?

[breadsauce]

I wonder if they made Kefir? Could have been used to separate the kefir from the "grains" !

I do love the idea of cheese making being so ancient.

[jhc]

What inevitably bothers me about this kind of pronouncement is they come up with "large" numbers like 7500, 10000, 15000 years and proceed to pretend this date is "so ancient we've been doing it forever".

When you reframe the number in the context of our evolutionary year, you get sobering perspectives ranging from "since two weeks ago" or "since yesterday" depending on the start date you choose.

[Kata]

What inevitably bothers me about this kind of pronouncement is they come up with "large" numbers like 7500, 10000, 15000 years and proceed to pretend this date is "so ancient we've been doing it forever".

When you reframe the number in the context of our evolutionary year, you get sobering perspectives ranging from "since two weeks ago" or "since yesterday" depending on the start date you choose.

Exactly. "Forever" would mean since we became our own separate species, about 150k-200k years ago. Really, the only kind of food we know for sure we've been eating forever is meat. Just sayin'.