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Chemical analysis of pottery reveals first dairying in Saharan Africa in the fifth millennium BC |
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Press Release from Bristol University
"The first unequivocal evidence that humans in prehistoric Saharan Africa used cattle for their milk nearly 7,000 years ago is described in research by an international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, UK, published today in Nature.
By analysing fatty acids extracted from unglazed pottery excavated from an archaeological site in Libya, the researchers showed that dairy fats were processed in the vessels. This first identification of dairying practices in the African continent, by prehistoric Saharan herders, can be reliably dated to the fifth millennium BC."
Picture:A fresco of painted cattle at the wadi Imha, site 03/705, in the Tadrart Acacus Mountains, Libyan Sahara. Numerous rich and vivid rock art images depicting scenes of cattle are found widely across north Africa, dating from at least 7,000 years ago. Image by Roberto Ceccacci, © The Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome |
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