Ancient Tibetans were consuming milk and other dairy products thousands of years ago, study finds
- Researchers believe the practice was adopted as a means of survival in an inhospitable region around the time pastoralism was introduced
- Dental evidence suggests pastoralists were relying on milk as a food source on the Tibetan Plateau 3,500 years ago – far earlier than previously thought
Ancient Tibetans started consuming dairy products at least 3,500 years ago as a way of helping people survive in the extreme conditions, a new study has found.
The international team of researchers said their findings show that dairy pastoralism had been introduced to the Tibetan Plateau far earlier than previously thought.
“This timing coincides with the earliest archaeologically identified domesticated ruminant bones on the interior plateau, indicating that dairying was probably adopted as soon as pastoralism spread into this region,” they said.
The scientists from institutes in Australia, Britain, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the United States published their findings – based on an analysis of milk proteins preserved in the teeth of 40 people – in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on Thursday.
“Milk and milk products provide a sustainable and renewable food source that contributes to increased food security in the Tibetan highlands,” the study said.
“Highland herder subsistence has traditionally focused on dairy products [such as] milk, butter, cheese and yogurt, mainly because consumption of meat requires killing of livestock and usually occurs only in a specific season.”