Extreme Dairy Farming

Researchers have found conclusive evidence that prehistoric people were dairy farming in the harsh climate of Finland, where there is snow for up to four months a year.

Research by the Universities of Bristol and Helsinki, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B [30 July, 2014], is the first of its kind to identify that dairying took place at a latitude – 60 degrees north of the equator - equally as far north as Canada's Northwestern territories, Anchorage in Alaska, Southern Greenland and near Yakutsk in Siberia.

The researchers compared the residues found in the walls of cooking pots from two separate eras and cultures, dating to circa 3900 BC to 3300 BC and circa 2500 BC, and found that the more recent pottery fragments showed evidence of milk fats.

This timing coincides with the transition from a culture of hunting and fishing – relying mainly on marine foods - to the arrival of 'Corded Ware' settlements which saw the introduction of animal domestication.

"This is remarkable evidence which proves that four and a half thousand years ago, Stone Age people must have been foddering and sheltering domesticated animals over harsh winters, in conditions that even nowadays we would find challenging," said lead author Dr. Lucy Cramp of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at Bristol University.

source: University of Bristol 

Artwork: Friesian Cows, 2009
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