時差N小時:能喝到牛奶,感謝古安那托利亞人吧

The average American consumes over twentygallons of milk per year. Today cow's milk andproducts made from it, such as butter, cheese andyogurt, are a regular part of the diet in most parts ofthe world. But did you ever stop to wonder when andhow humans started drinking cow's milk?

美國人平均每年消費20余加倫牛奶。如今牛奶以及牛奶制品，如黃油，奶酪和酸奶，在世界上大多數地區(qū)都很常見。然而你停下來想過人類是從何時開始飲用牛奶，又是如何飲用的?

We know that cows were used for milk as early as 2000 BC from artistic or writtendescriptions of the milking process, or from discoveries of early milk carts. But theseirrefutable clues only date back 2,000 to 4,000 years after the earliest known evidence ofcattle herding. Because of this discrepancy, the prevailing hypothesis was that for a fewthousand years, domesticated cattle were used only for meat and hides.

從公元前2000年關于擠奶過程的繪畫或者文字記載，以及考古發(fā)現的早期牛奶車，我們知道人類養(yǎng)牛用來產奶。但是這些不容否認的線索只能追朔到牛群出現的最早記載以后的2000到4000年。對于這種時間上的差異，普遍的假說是因為那幾千年來人們只使用家養(yǎng)奶牛的皮肉。

But an international team of researchers may have put this hypothesis to rest. Scientistsat the University of Bristol in England developed a technique to identify the residue of fatsfrom cows' milk on ancient pieces of pottery.

但是國際研究小組可能會推翻這種假說。位于英國格蘭的布里斯托大學科學家們開發(fā)出一種技術，可用來識別古時陶瓷碎片上殘留的牛奶油脂。

The team examined over 2,000 pottery shards from twenty-three different archaeologicalsites across the Near East and Southeastern Europe. They found milk residue on pots datingback to 7000 BC!

這個小組檢查了超過2000塊陶瓷碎片，這些碎片來自橫跨近東和歐洲東南地區(qū)不同的考古遺址。他們在一塊公元前7000年的瓦罐上發(fā)現了牛奶殘留物。

The oldest milk residue was discovered around ancient Anatolia, which we know as modern-day Turkey. The region may have been ideal for cattle domestication because it had higherrainfall and greener grazing needed to support cattle, compared to drier neighboring regionsbetter suited for sheep or goats.

這些最早的牛奶殘留物在古安納托利亞周圍被發(fā)現，安納托利亞就是現代的土耳其。這個地區(qū)是養(yǎng)殖奶牛的理想之地，因為這里降雨量大，草場更清脆蔥綠，有利于奶牛的生長，而相鄰地區(qū)較干燥，更適合養(yǎng)殖綿羊和山羊。

This is the first good proof that when humans first started herding cattle, they used themilk as well as the meat. So next time you're enjoying a cool drink of milk, thank the ancientAnatolians!

這是第一個有力的證據，它證明了古時人類養(yǎng)殖牛群時，不僅食用牛肉也飲用牛奶。所以下次再品嘗美味的牛奶時，別忘了謝謝古安納托利亞人!