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Warrior skeletons reveal Bronze Age Europeans couldn't drink milk
- apothegm 1y agoThey sampled a whole 14 skeletons from two sub-populations and based on that concluded the gene had not yet appeared in the region at all? Please tell me this is just bad reporting.
- theandrewbailey 1y agoA woman's remains would be about the last thing I'd expect to find in a bronze-age battlefield, but out of 14, they found 2. Considering the ubiquity of lactase persistence for centuries, not finding 1 instance on either side is surprising.
- apothegm 1y agoThe article said that previous theories suggested that the gene spread gradually and that for a long time it was increasingly widespread, but not nearly ubiquitous at the time in question. It’s entirely possible that the groups in conflict were among those to whom it hadn’t yet spread.
- robthebrew 1y agoI thought the whole point of yoghurt and cheese is that the lactose is fermented out (ie not present).
- dtgm93 1y agoAnd no one can actually drink raw milk fresh from the udder either? Enough contamination must occur for the enzymes to be produced for regular people to be able to drink it, I thought.
- detaro 1y agoNo, the milk processing doesn't really do anything like that. The primary problem with raw milk (and why selling it is heavily regulated/banned in many places) is pathogens/bacteria, not that it can't be digested.