For your interest, we had an 'brief communication' in nature
out last thursday, the first paragraph is below.
See the first authors website
(http://nrg.ncl.ac.uk/news/news18.html) for what the media
have made of it - I never thought mel gibson would be an
image that residue analysis would be linked with.
jacqui
Abstract
Archaeology: Detecting milk proteins in ancient pots
OLIVER CRAIG, JACQUI MULVILLE, MIKE PARKER PEARSON, ROBERT
SOKOL,KEITH GELSTHORPE, REBECCA STACEY & MATTHEW COLLINS
Deciding whether to farm cattle for milk or beef was just
as complex in the past as it is today. Compared with meat
production, dairying is a high-input, high-output, high-risk
operation indicative of an intensive, sophisticated
economy, but this practice is notoriously difficult to
demonstrate in the archaeological record. Here we provide
evidence for the presence of milk proteins preserved in
prehistoric vessels, which to our knowledge have not been
detected before. This finding resolves the controversy that
has surrounded dairying on the Scottish Atlantic coast
during the Iron Age and indicates that farming by the early
inhabitants of this harsh, marginal environment was
surprisingly well developed.
jacqui
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Jacqui Mulville,
EH Regional Science Advisor (E. Mids)
Oxford University Museum,
Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PW
Tel: 01865-272996 Fax: 01865-272970
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