CHEMICAL EVIDENCE OF OLD CHEESE-MAKING

EVIDENCE OF WORLD'S
'OLDEST' CHEESE-MAKING FOUND

www.sciencerecorder.com - Scientists have reportedly discovered pottery fragments that suggest cheese-making is a much older process than previously thought. The pottery pieces, which have small holes throughout, are thought to be more than 7,000 years old and may have been used to separate curds from whey. According to the article in the journal Nature, the pottery fragments were discovered along a river in Poland and have been determined to be the oldest piece of evidence of cheese-making ever found. The pieces are expected to help researchers further understand the development of dairy in the ancient world, which had a big impact on human history and culture.
Peter Bogucki, an archaeologist at Princeton University, said the development of dairy, especially cheese, helped the people of Neolithic age get valuable nutrients. “In the course of excavating these sites, we occasionally came across fragments of pottery with small holes in them,” Bogucki recalled. “We realized these were sieves.”

Bogucki has been studying ancient relics in Poland for nearly 35 years of excavations. In addition to discovering the pottery with holes, he and his team also discovered that farmers in the area herded cattle and grew numerous crops. A research team led by University of Bristol professor Richard P. Evershed have studied the pottery fragments and determined that they contain milk and fat residues, lending evidence to the cheese theory. Evershed’s team focused on the chemical analysis of ancient pottery to determine what people were eating at the time and how they processed the food. 
Previously Evershed’s lab has found milk fats in pottery pieces from Turkey that are more than 8,000 years old. However, that study did not conclusively mean cheese was being made, it could have been butter, yogurt, or another milk product. Now, the new study in Poland is the first to strongly suggest cheese was being made due to the strainer-like appearance of the pots.

Researchers said they found the earliest known chemical evidence of cheese-making, based on the analysis of milk-fat residues in pottery dating back about 7,200 years. Scientists found ancient, perforated clay pots excavated at sites along the Vistula River in Poland had likely been used by prehistoric cheese mongers as strainers to separate curds and whey - a critical step in making cheese. The discovery suggests Europe's early farmers added a cheese course to their diet almost as soon as they learned to domesticate cattle and started regularly milking cows. According to the Vedas, the cow is one of our mothers and from her milk one can make many other foods such as cheese or curd, yogurt, kefir, butter, ghee, and so on.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Bhaktivedanta's alternative vision of how human society ought to live could be summed up with the twin concept of protection of brahmanas and protection of cows. ... To ensure spiritual well-being, brahmanas must be protected, and to ensure material well-being, cows must be protected. In a simple agrarian society it is easy to see the value of cow protection. The cow eats grass which humans cannot eat, and turns it into the “miracle food” of milk, which is versatile and full of nutrition. From milk comes yoghurt, cheese, butter and ghee (butter-oil). In return for her milk, the cow is protected and cared for as a member of the community, and she and the bull are never slaughtered. The bull cannot give milk, but he can be just as valuable because he likes to work hard in the fields, ploughing, grinding and pulling carts. While the bull helps to produce grains and vegetables, the cow gives milk. Milk products, combined with grains and vegetables produce the perfect balanced human diet.

Ranchor Prime (Śripad Ranchor Dasa) :
“Hinduism & Ecology”
Chapter 12: “An Alternative Society”
Friends of Vrindavan (FOV) - WWF
http://www.fov.org.uk/hinduism/hinduism.html
http://www.fov.org.uk/aims/aims.html

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/