animals could produce the nutritional
equivalent of a slaughtered meat animal or
more each year for several years, and in
manageable daily increments. Dairying is the
most efficient means of obtaining
nourishment from uncultivated land, and may
have been especially important as farming
communities spread outward from Southwest
Asia.
Small ruminants and then cattle were
almost surely first milked into containers
fashioned from skins or animal stomachs. The
earliest hard evidence of dairying to date
consists of clay sieves, which have been found
in the settlements of the earliest northern
European farmers, from around 5000 BCE.
Rock drawings of milking scenes were made a
thousand years later in the Sahara, and what
appear to be the remains of cheese have been
found in Egyptian tombs of 2300 BCE.
Diverse Traditions