[Sca-cooks] Prehistoric Cheese

[Rikke D. Giles]

On 2006.01.25 08:56, Michael Gunter wrote:
>> http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060123/dairy_arc.html?dcitc=w01-101-a
>> e-0000
> 
> I may have read this wrong but one thing that annoyed
> me in the article was that maybe they were taught how
> to make the cheese from the Chinese. Gosh, you mean
> that us poor round-eyes can't invent anything without
> them teaching us first? I don't think the accidental
> discovery of youghurt and cheese is all that difficult.

As an archaeologist, this really annoyed me too.  What's with  
constantly attributing everything to diffusion?  As you said, cheese  
is a no-brainer.  There are so many ways it could have been  
discovered, and I would suggest that it was 'found' almost  
immediately after animals began to be milked and the milk retained  
for later use, i.e. soon after they were domesticated.

On another note, I've a friend working on stone age and bronze age  
Britain.  They've found these residues in pots from Britain from  
these time periods as well.

Aelianora de Wintringham
Barony of Dragon's Laire, An Tir