Dairy pastoralism sustained eastern Eurasian steppe populations for 5,000 years

TY - JOUR

T1 - Dairy pastoralism sustained eastern Eurasian steppe populations for 5,000 years

AU - Wilkin, Shevan

AU - Ventresca Miller, Alicia

AU - Taylor, William T T

AU - Miller, Bryan K

AU - Hagan, Richard W

AU - Bleasdale, Madeleine

AU - Scott, Ashley

AU - Gankhuyg, Sumiya

AU - Ramsøe, Abigail

AU - Uliziibayar, S

AU - Trachsel, Christian

AU - Nanni, Paolo

AU - Grossmann, Jonas

AU - Orlando, Ludovic

AU - Horton, Mark

AU - Stockhammer, Philipp W

AU - Myagmar, Erdene

AU - Boivin, Nicole

AU - Warinner, Christina

AU - Hendy, Jessica

N1 - © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2020. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

PY - 2020/3/2

Y1 - 2020/3/2

N2 - Dairy pastoralism is integral to contemporary and past lifeways on the eastern Eurasian steppe, facilitating survival in agriculturally challenging environments. While previous research has indicated that ruminant dairy pastoralism was practiced in the region by circa 1300 BC, the origin, extent and diversity of this custom remain poorly understood. Here, we analyse ancient proteins from human dental calculus recovered from geographically diverse locations across Mongolia and spanning 5,000 years. We present the earliest evidence for dairy consumption on the eastern Eurasian steppe by circa 3000 BC and the later emergence of horse milking at circa 1200 BC, concurrent with the first evidence for horse riding. We argue that ruminant dairying contributed to the demographic success of Bronze Age Mongolian populations and that the origins of traditional horse dairy products in eastern Eurasia are closely tied to the regional emergence of mounted herding societies during the late second millennium BC.

AB - Dairy pastoralism is integral to contemporary and past lifeways on the eastern Eurasian steppe, facilitating survival in agriculturally challenging environments. While previous research has indicated that ruminant dairy pastoralism was practiced in the region by circa 1300 BC, the origin, extent and diversity of this custom remain poorly understood. Here, we analyse ancient proteins from human dental calculus recovered from geographically diverse locations across Mongolia and spanning 5,000 years. We present the earliest evidence for dairy consumption on the eastern Eurasian steppe by circa 3000 BC and the later emergence of horse milking at circa 1200 BC, concurrent with the first evidence for horse riding. We argue that ruminant dairying contributed to the demographic success of Bronze Age Mongolian populations and that the origins of traditional horse dairy products in eastern Eurasia are closely tied to the regional emergence of mounted herding societies during the late second millennium BC.

KW - Animals

KW - Horses

KW - Humans

U2 - 10.1038/s41559-020-1120-y

DO - 10.1038/s41559-020-1120-y

M3 - Article

C2 - 32127685

SN - 2397-334X

VL - 4

SP - 346

EP - 355

JO - Nature Ecology and Evolution

JF - Nature Ecology and Evolution

IS - 3

ER -