Remains of milk found in prehistoric bottles

2019/09/25 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Arkeologia

Small neolithic ceramic vessels have been found with a tube or end that allowed the discharge of liquids. The older ones are about 5,000 years ago and are believed to be bottles. Now, a study has found new indications in favor of this hypothesis, since it has identified remains of milk in three containers. The results have been published in Natura.

Three naves found in Bavaria, with children from 0 to 6 years old, in a cemetery of the beginning of the Iron Age (a. C.) 800-450 years) and the other in a Bronze Age necropolis (BC) 1200 - 800 years). Through the study of isotopes of the fat residues of these containers, animal fatty acids have been identified. Specifically, it has been concluded that they were used with milk of two ruminant cubes, and in the third has been identified milk that is not that of ruminants, probably human or pork milk.