A new study published in the journal Science Advances reveals that dairy played a significant role in the diets of early humans on the Tibetan Plateau. The plateau, also known as the “third pole” or the “roof of the world,” is one of the most inhospitable environments on Earth. While positive natural selection enabled early Tibetans to better adapt to high elevations, obtaining sufficient food from the resource-poor highlands would have remained challenging.

The study, which analyzed ancient proteins from the dental calculus of 40 human individuals from 15 sites across the interior plateau, found that dairying was introduced at least 3500 years ago. The adoption of dairy pastoralism helped to revolutionize people’s ability to occupy much of the plateau, particularly the vast areas too extreme for crop cultivation.

The evidence indicates that diverse populations consumed dairy products, including females and males, adults and children, and individuals from elite and non-elite burial contexts. Additionally, prehistoric Tibetan highlanders used goats, sheep, cattle, and yak dairy products. Early pastoralists in western Tibet seem to have preferred goat milk.

Tracing dairying in the deep past has long been a challenge for researchers. Traditionally, archaeologists analyzed the remains of animals and the interiors of food containers for evidence of dairying. However, the ability of these sources to provide direct evidence of milk consumption is often limited.

“Palaeoproteomics is a new and powerful tool that allowed us to investigate Tibetan diets in unprecedented detail,” says coauthor Dr. Shevan Wilkin. “The analysis of proteins in ancient human dental calculus not only offers direct evidence of dietary intake but also allows us to identify which species the milk came from.”

References

• Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology. (2023, April 12). Dairy Foods Helped Ancient Tibetans Thrive in one of Earth’s Most Inhospitable Environments. Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology; Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology. https://www.shh.mpg.de/2271930/dairy-in-tibet
• Tang, L., Wilkin, S., Richter, K. K., Bleasdale, M., Fernandes, R., He, Y., Li, S., Petraglia, M., Scott, A., Teoh, F. K. Y., Tong, Y., Tsering, T., Tsho, Y., Xi, L., Yang, F., Yuan, H., Chen, Z., Roberts, P., He, W., … Boivin, N. (2023). Paleoproteomic evidence reveals dairying supported prehistoric occupation of the highland Tibetan Plateau. Science Advances, 9(15), eadf0345. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adf0345