The surprising role cheese played in human evolution
August 29, 2018 by Penny Bickle, The Conversation
A solid white mass found in a broken jar in an Ancient Egyptian tomb has turned out to be the world's oldest example of solid cheese.
Probably made mostly from sheep or goats milk, the cheese was found several years ago by archaeologists in the ancient tomb of Ptahmes, who was a high-ranking Egyptian official. The substance was identified after the archaeology team carried out biomolecular identification of its proteins.
This 3,200-year-old find is exciting because it shows that the Ancient Egyptian's shared our love of cheese – to the extent it was given as a funerary offering. But not only that, it also fits into archaeology's growing understanding of the importance of dairy to the development of the human diet in Europe.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-08-role-cheese-human-evolution.html#jCp
