Modern Scandinavians and Dutch people have the highest frequency (>90%) of lactase persistence allele in the world, making almost every individual able to digest the lactose sugar in milk throughout adulthood.
It has long been speculated when the transition to dairy farming took place, which would have started the selection for the lactase persistence allele. The consensus in academia so far was that dairy farming in northern Germany and Scandinavia started with the Late Neolithic Funnelbeaker culture, which evolved from the Linear Pottery culture. It is true that the Funnelbeaker people did raise predominantly cattle, and that was the argument that archaeologists and prehistorians like to give to justify the origins of dairy farming.
As is often the case, I have always gone against the current and maintained that dairy farming was only introduced with the arrival of Indo-European speakers, and that this coincided with the advance of Bronze Age cultures from eastern Europe. Therefore the Funnelbeaker culture was non-Indo-European, and their people probably raised cattle mostly for meat consumption, although they may also have made some cheese occasionally.
The Proto-Indo-European steppe people of the Yamna culture were the first archaeological culture in Europe in which cattle breeding was practised virtually without cereal agriculture to complement it. These people relied heavily on their cows, and judging from the Indo-European myths and religions (like Hinduism) that evolved from the Yamna culture, cows were used predominantly for their milk. Hindus see cows as sacred because they view them as a sort of mother providing milk.
A new paper by Lucy Cramp and co-workers seems to provide the first conclusive evidence that dairy farming indeed only started in Scandinavia from around 2500 BCE, that is soon after the establishment of the Corded Ware (or Battle Axe) culture in the region, as a direct expansion of the Yamna culture. I have always described the Corded Ware culture as the arrival of the predominantly R1a branch of the Indo-Europeans in central and northern Europe.
I had previously analysed and compared the mtDNA samples from the Funnelbeaker culture and the Corded Ware culture, and came to the conclusion that the Funnelbeaker people were essentially a blend of Mesolithic and Neolithic people, but that they were not yet admixed with PIE steppe people. Cramp et al. also think that a genetically distinct group of people brought dairy farming to Scandinavia c. 2500 BCE.
It has long been speculated when the transition to dairy farming took place, which would have started the selection for the lactase persistence allele. The consensus in academia so far was that dairy farming in northern Germany and Scandinavia started with the Late Neolithic Funnelbeaker culture, which evolved from the Linear Pottery culture. It is true that the Funnelbeaker people did raise predominantly cattle, and that was the argument that archaeologists and prehistorians like to give to justify the origins of dairy farming.
As is often the case, I have always gone against the current and maintained that dairy farming was only introduced with the arrival of Indo-European speakers, and that this coincided with the advance of Bronze Age cultures from eastern Europe. Therefore the Funnelbeaker culture was non-Indo-European, and their people probably raised cattle mostly for meat consumption, although they may also have made some cheese occasionally.
The Proto-Indo-European steppe people of the Yamna culture were the first archaeological culture in Europe in which cattle breeding was practised virtually without cereal agriculture to complement it. These people relied heavily on their cows, and judging from the Indo-European myths and religions (like Hinduism) that evolved from the Yamna culture, cows were used predominantly for their milk. Hindus see cows as sacred because they view them as a sort of mother providing milk.
A new paper by Lucy Cramp and co-workers seems to provide the first conclusive evidence that dairy farming indeed only started in Scandinavia from around 2500 BCE, that is soon after the establishment of the Corded Ware (or Battle Axe) culture in the region, as a direct expansion of the Yamna culture. I have always described the Corded Ware culture as the arrival of the predominantly R1a branch of the Indo-Europeans in central and northern Europe.
I had previously analysed and compared the mtDNA samples from the Funnelbeaker culture and the Corded Ware culture, and came to the conclusion that the Funnelbeaker people were essentially a blend of Mesolithic and Neolithic people, but that they were not yet admixed with PIE steppe people. Cramp et al. also think that a genetically distinct group of people brought dairy farming to Scandinavia c. 2500 BCE.
