In some books, the first milking techniques refer to egyptian or mesopotamian use of cereal straw inserted in teat canal to drain milk outside the udder but without any references or illustration. We can also read some report of usage of small bone cannula (from bird) for this pupose. Such facts gave some development of teat cannula in the1800's as the first steps before machine milking development. If you have any references about straw usage of small bones usage as cannula, even in more recent times, please let me know! Many thanks by advance.
HAVE A LOOK TO THE BELOW ARTICLE.
Milking Cows In Ancient Times
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com
New evidence points to the existence of prehistoric dairies existing almost 7,000 years ago in the modern day Sahara Desert.
British scientists said they have found proof of dairy processing or cooking in the form of microscopic dairy fats stained on clay pots from Libya dating back to the fifth millennium BC, according to a report published in Nature.
“This suggests that the inception of dairying practices in North Africa and an early and independent ℠secondary products´ economy seems plausible given what we now know of the first appearance of milking in the Near East,” study co-author Richard Evershed, of the University of Bristol told the Daily Mail.
In 2008, the same research team published research showing the earliest known use of dairy techniques dates back at least nine thousand years to northwest Turkey. That study analyzed 2,200 pottery vessels and found the evidence of prehistoric processing of milk into butter and other products.
The latest findings also give a more detailed understanding of the environment in Neolithic Northern Africa. About 10,000 years ago, the Sahara Desert was a more hospitable place with more rainfall and plant life. Early hunter-gatherers lived a semi-sedentary life, used simple pottery, hunted wild game, and collected wild grains. Between 7,000 and 5,000 years ago, the region began the transition to an arid desert, forcing the people living there to switch to a more nomadic way of life, as the record of fossilized cattle bones and rock paintings suggests.
“While the remarkable rock art of Saharan Africa contains many representations of cattle — including, in a few cases, depictions of the actual milking of a cow — it can rarely be reliably dated,” Evershed said in a prepared statement.
“Also, the scarcity of cattle bones in archaeological sites makes it impossible to ascertain herd structures, thereby preventing interpretations of whether dairying was practiced.”
Processing the animal milk into other products would have substantial advantages over simply drinking it, including a means of storing surplus milk as products such as cheese. This would also make dairy products available throughout the year.
The new study gives a window into the development of humans ability to process lactose. It is believed that early man was lactose intolerant, but developed the ability to break down the sugar within the past few thousand years.
“As well as identifying the early adoption of dairying practices in Saharan Africa, these results also provide a background for our understanding of the evolution of the lactase persistence gene which seems to have arisen once prehistoric people started consuming milk products,” said co-author Julie Dunne, a PhD student in Bristol’s School of Chemistry.
“The gene is found in Europeans and across some Central African groups, thus supporting arguments for the movement of people, together with their cattle, from the Near East into eastern African in the early to middle Holocene, around 8,000 years ago,” she added.
Most mammals become lactose intolerant after weaning, due to a decrease in the production of lactase, the enzyme that catalyzes the sugar. While most human populations have some degree of developed lactase persistence, where the production of lactase continues into adulthood– it is estimated that 75 percent of adults worldwide show some decrease in lactase activity.
Read more at http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112643164/milking-cows-in-ancient-times/#ruumGX6JZDdG71kC.99
Many Thanks. yes, it is sure that animals was milked in this very old time. I already know very well all the archeological researches especially made in south libya in the old caves now free of sand in desert (one of my friends make researches in this domain of archeo-zootechnical sciences and have a lot of drawing and photographs). I know that milking was an evidence around 3000 years BC and even more sooner as reported in your refernce, and usage of milk stored in can also. Nevertheless, all painting only show people hand milking cows without any precision of the way of milking (only presence of the calves near the mother is well demonstrated) . I red paper with specific reference to wheat straw used as cannula in antique egypt but I never find the origin of such a thing? It is specifically this point that is of interest for me for a book I am writing about milking evolution throughout times. best regards
I think you will find many info at the below web
http://www.filaha.org/articles_resources.html
If you are working on a book about milking evolution throughout time I would suggest these references, although they do not discuss straw or bone use in milking:
- Erf, O. (1906). Milking machines. Bulletin 140, Kansas State Agriculture College, Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan, KS, USA. This historical document describes numerous inventions from the 1800's onwards, with figures.
- Hall, H.S. (1959). Engineering aspects. Pages 12 - 56 in Machine Milking, Bulletin 177. F.a.F. Ministry of Agriculture, ed. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, UK.
Two books on the evolution of milk itself are:
- Mendelson, A. (2008). Milk: the surprising story of milk through the ages. 1st ed. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, USA.
- Valenze, D. (2011). Milk: A local and global history. 351 pg. 1ste ed. Yale University Press, New Haven & London.
One of those books might contain reference that can aid in your search.
Thank's a lot Ingrid, You are true, I try a synthesis of american, australian/NZ and european data about milking evolution for a paper and may be a book or museum comments here in Britanny for the futur. I knew well the first ones but not the two last..I hope to obtain and read them for the futur if they can help. Best regards
Thanks also to you Imadeddin. I dis not know this data base with a lot of things to discover. I hope to find any interesting information here. best regards
Maybe KOROLEV, V.: Agricultural Mechanization; Milking Methods and Milking Machines. United Nations, Genea (1958) contains a reference. I found this refence cited in Parau, D.: Studien zur Kulturgeschichte des Milchentzugs (Studies of the cultural history of milking), Volkwirtschaftlicher Verlag, Kempten (1975). Parau mentioned Korolev (1958) in the context of milking with cannulas but did not give any hint that straw was used as a milking cannula. Unfortunately, Parau's book is in German. Kind regards.
Hi Kestin, I have already the Parau book (and translated it even with difficulties!!) and try to obtain the korolev paper now. many thanks