Archaeology: The milk revolution BY Andrew Curry

http://www.nature.com/news/archaeology-the-milk-revolution-1.13471

When a single genetic mutation first let ancient Europeans drink milk, it set the stage for a continental upheaval...

...The mystery potsherds sat in storage until 2011, when Mélanie Roffet-Salque pulled them out and analysed fatty residues preserved in the clay. Roffet-Salque, a geochemist at the University of Bristol, UK, found signatures of abundant milk fats — evidence that the early farmers had used the pottery as sieves to separate fatty milk solids from liquid whey. That makes the Polish relics the oldest known evidence of cheese-making in the world...