Ancient Britons 'loved dairy food'

Britons embraced a "convenience food" lifestyle around 6,000 years ago when they replaced hunting and fishing with dairy farming, scientists say.

Studies of old rubbish dumps and dirty dishes found our ancient ancestors gave up their passion for fish and wild meats to begin a love affair with milk.

Early hunters feasted on venison and wild boar and ate large quantities of seafood, including seals and shellfish, research by the University of Bristol and Cardiff University found.

But when experienced immigrants introduced domestic animals 6,000 years ago, Britons quickly gave up wild foods and fishing was largely abandoned.

Seafood was shunned for the next 4,000 years, reappearing in the British diet during the Iron Age and becoming a significant part of it only with the arrival of the Vikings.

The findings come from a large-scale investigation of British archaeological sites dating from around 4,600 BC to 1,400 AD. [...] times-series.co.uk

Reference: 'Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the northeast Atlantic archipelagos' by Lucy J. E. Cramp, Jennifer Jones, Alison Sheridan, Jessica Smyth, Helen Whelton, Jacqui Mulville, Niall Sharples and Richard P. Evershed in Proceedings of the Royal Society B Link


Actualización 18-02-14.  Los antiguos britones abandonaron los platos a base de pescado en favor de una dieta rica en lácteos hace 6.000 años
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