Alla ricerca del primo formaggio

Abstract

With the transition from the Paleo-Mesolithic hunting and gathering economy to the Neolithic system based on agriculture and livestock breeding, the captivity of the main ruminant species made animal milk available for human consumption. However, lactose originally caused digestive problems for adults, who lacked lactase, and both cow’s milk and sheep’s milk were, even if for different reasons, contraindicated for infant feeding. Therefore, it soon became necessary to transform milk into products more easily assimilated by humans. Furthermore, faunal studies of settlements from the 5th and 4th millennia BCE indicate that ruminant births predominantly occurred only once a year, hence the need to produce dairy products and/or cheeses that could be preserved much longer than milk. Recently, new and more convincing hypotheses have been formulated regarding the genetic processes that favoured the spread of lactase persistence in adults. Finally, archaeology and biochemistry now allow us to better understand both the systems of exploitation of farmed animals and the types of products obtained from their milk.