11: The Detection of Small Biomolecules: Dairy Products in the Archaeological Record
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Published:16 Dec 2016
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Special Collection: RSC eTextbook CollectionProduct Type: Textbooks
Archaeological Chemistry, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 3rd edn, 2016, vol. 3, pp. 474-500.
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When did humans begin to incorporate milk from domesticated animals into their own diets, either directly or through processed foods like butter and cheese? This question has implications for understanding the economies and organization of societies, particularly during the Neolithic in Europe. Evidence of dairying was initially claimed by analysis of lipid residues—in the form of acylglycerols and free fatty acids—in ceramics, typically carried out using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. However, this approach is restricted to well-preserved samples (where diagnostic short-chain acids remain). Compound-specific stable carbon isotope analysis provides confirmation through the distinction of adipose carcass fats from dairy fats. Proteins may afford a new and more specific direction for distinguishing dairy products from different source species. All of this seeks not just to recognize the use of dairy products in the archaeological record, but to further establish the role these products had on the people and their social structures.