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How Middle Eastern Milk Drinkers Conquered Europe
Spiegel ^ | 15 Oct 2010 | Matthias Schulz

Posted on 10/15/2010 7:56:47 AM PDT by Palter

New research has revealed that agriculture came to Europe amid a wave of immigration from the Middle East during the Neolithic period. The newcomers won out over the locals because of their sophisticated culture, mastery of agriculture -- and their miracle food, milk.

Wedged in between dump trucks and excavators, archeologist Birgit Srock is drawing the outline of a 7,200-year-old posthole. A concrete mixing plant is visible on the horizon. She is here because, during the construction of a high-speed rail line between the German cities of Nuremberg and Berlin, workers happened upon a large Neolithic settlement in the Upper Franconia region of northern Bavaria.

The remains of more than 40 houses were unearthed, as well as skeletons, a spinning wheel, bulbous clay vessels, cows' teeth and broken sieves for cheese production -- a typical settlement of the so-called Linear Pottery culture (named after the patterns on their pottery).

This ancient culture provided us with the blessing of bread baking. At around 5300 BC, everyone in Central Europe was suddenly farming and raising livestock. The members of the Linear Pottery culture kept cows in wooden pens, used rubbing stones and harvested grain. Within less than 300 years, the sedentary lifestyle had spread to the Paris basin.

The reasons behind the rapid shift have long been a mystery. Was it an idea that spread through Central Europe at the time, or an entire people?

Peaceful Cooperation or Invasion?

Many academics felt that the latter was inconceivable. Agriculture was invented in the Middle East, but many researchers found it hard to believe that people from that part of the world would have embarked on an endless march across the Bosporus and into the north.

(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...


TOPICS: Agriculture; History; Society
KEYWORDS: agriculture; animalhusbandry; dietandcuisine; europe; falsehistory; godsgravesglyphs; gotmilk; helixmakemineadouble; huntergatherers; keywordtroll; middleeast; milk; neolithic; teats; udderlyfascinating
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To: Palter

21 posted on 10/16/2010 5:01:00 AM PDT by Condor51 (SAT CONG!)
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To: 1010RD
Well, actually, mare's milk is quite common in Indiana too, but I was referring to the far more urban area of Virginia where I live.

Indiana has horses, Fur Shur, because the big horse racing farms and even bigger "pharms" like Eli Lilly, et al, find it a good place to contract tp breed and raise horses.

What we have around here are about 25,000 Afghans, and they PREFER mare's milk ~ so we get mare's milk products from Bulgaria, which is presently the world's leading mare's milk feta cheese manufacturer. The stores catering to Afghan and Arab people here all sell canned mare's milk.

22 posted on 10/16/2010 6:12:41 AM PDT by muawiyah ("GIT OUT THE WAY" The Republicans are coming)
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To: 1010RD
Well, actually, mare's milk is quite common in Indiana too, but I was referring to the far more urban area of Virginia where I live.

Indiana has horses, Fur Shur, because the big horse racing farms and even bigger "pharms" like Eli Lilly, et al, find it a good place to contract tp breed and raise horses.

What we have around here are about 25,000 Afghans, and they PREFER mare's milk ~ so we get mare's milk products from Bulgaria, which is presently the world's leading mare's milk feta cheese manufacturer. The stores catering to Afghan and Arab people here all sell canned mare's milk.

23 posted on 10/16/2010 6:12:44 AM PDT by muawiyah ("GIT OUT THE WAY" The Republicans are coming)
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To: Daffynition

Teats a mystery.


24 posted on 10/16/2010 10:30:26 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: Condor51

I love science.


25 posted on 10/16/2010 10:34:26 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: gleeaikin

The whole anti-milk campaign is and has been anti-intellectual; the example that springs to mind is [unnamed idiot actress, busybody, and public scold] who parrots the claim that only humans drink the milk of other species — as if that is some kind of decisive argument (and is if she’s never seen a cat on a dairy farm, or anywhere else for that matter, enjoy cow’s milk). Humans are — like every thing that isn’t a plant — opportunistic feeders. And it isn’t a crime. Attempts to criminalize my eating habits will result in a lot of people not having anything at all to say about my eating habits. [and then ‘Civ cools down with a tall glass of milk]

:’)


26 posted on 10/16/2010 10:40:16 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: Daffynition

IN the mad dash to politicize history they overlooked Chauvet and other neolithic sites...


27 posted on 10/16/2010 11:28:52 AM PDT by eleni121 (http://www.serfes.org/orthodox/memoryof.htm)
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To: muawiyah

So what would the low levels of lactose tolerance in north africa and the middle east mean?


28 posted on 06/02/2011 6:55:14 PM PDT by visualops (Proud Air Force Mom)
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To: visualops
What would it mean? That they didn't drink milk after childhood. However, they probably made and aged cheese, and as we know, yoghurt was probably invented there.

People with lactose intolerance make do with fermented products that contain lactase ~ kimchi, saurkraut, yoghurt, and so on.

Eventually the old boys got a hankering for those early Rhine maidens who had something like 500 genes modified to allow for persistent lactose tolerance, and the rest is history ~ ARAB WOMEN WITH STREAKED HAIR!

29 posted on 06/02/2011 7:05:05 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

That’s rather interesting. So lactose tolerance seems to be a “use it or lose it” type of thing? Kinda like civilization and now the Constitution.


30 posted on 06/02/2011 7:21:16 PM PDT by visualops (Proud Air Force Mom)
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To: visualops
If you inherit only one allele for lactose tolerance (on one of the modified genes related to the condition) you gots ta use it or lose it.

if you inherit 2 alleles you're set for life.

31 posted on 06/02/2011 7:43:35 PM PDT by muawiyah
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