danny6114: So Cheesy

Share This

December 12, 2012
So Cheesy

There are few foods more delicious than a good cheese. No one knows exactly when we started turning milk into fromage, but scientists recently uncovered evidence that suggests people were making and enjoying cheese as early as 7500 years ago.

In Poland, scientists unearthed 34 perforated pottery vessels that resembled modern cheese strainers. They assumed that that's what the pieces of pottery were, but wanted to rule out flame covers, chafing dishes, and honey strainers first. When the team at Bristol University analyzed the residues left on the pottery, the evidence for cheese-making "was stunning," says Bristol University Professor Richard Evershed . "If you then put together the fact that there are milk fats in with the holes in the vessels, along with the size of the vessels and knowing what we know about how milk products are processed, what other milk product could it be?"

If they're correct, that means people were making cheese in northern Europe during Neolithic times -- much earlier than the only other written evidence for the activity, which occurred around 5000 years ago.

And by the way, scientists think that the cheese being made was likely a soft, cow's milk type. Sounds delicious.