Researcher Uncovers Evidence of Earliest Known Dairy Production in India
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:
Researcher uncovers evidence of earliest known dairy production in India:
In the fertile river valley along the border of modern-day India and Pakistan, the Indus Valley Civilization built some of the largest cities in the ancient world. Feeding such a large population would have been a significant challenge. New research from Kalyan Sekhar Chakraborty reveals one of the ways the civilization was able to sustain so many people. The postdoctoral researcher at the University of Toronto Mississauga has shown that dairy was being produced as far back as 2500 BCE. It is the earliest known dairy production in India, and could have helped produce the type of food surplus needed for trade.
In a report published in Scientific Reports, Chakraborty used molecular analysis techniques to study residues from ancient pottery, and demonstrate that dairy fats were not only present, but relatively common. He studied 59 shards of pottery from Kotada Bhadli, a small site in the present-day Indian state of Gujarat. Twenty-two of them showed evidence of dairy lipids. It is the earliest known dairy production in India, and dates to the height of the Indus Valley Civilization.
"We found that dairy was an integral part of their diet at a site that dates to about 2500 BCE," says Chakraborty, who is conducting his post-doctoral research with Heather Miller, an anthropology professor at UTM.
Journal Reference:
Kalyan Sekhar Chakraborty, Greg F. Slater, Heather M.-L. Miller, et al. Compound specific isotope analysis of lipid residues provides the earliest direct evidence of dairy product processing in South Asia [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-72963-y)
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