Chemical Analysis of Pottery, Informed by Penn Research, Reveals First Dairying in Saharan African

A rock art image from Libya, between 5,000 and 8,000 years old, depicts domesticated cattle. Photo: Roberto Ceccacci, © The Arch

The first unequivocal evidence that humans in prehistoric Saharan Africa used cattle for their milk nearly 7,000 years ago is described in research by an international team of scientists, led by researchers from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and including Kathleen Ryan of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

By analyzing fatty acids extracted from unglazed pottery excavated from an archaeological site in Libya, the researchers showed that dairy fats were processed in the vessels. This first identification of dairying practices in the African continent, by prehistoric Saharan herders, can be reliably dated to the fifth millennium B.C.E.

Around 10,000 years ago the Sahara Desert was a wetter, greener place; early hunter-gatherer people in the area lived a semi-sedentary life, utilizing pottery, hunting wild game and collecting wild cereals. Then, around 7,000-5,000 years ago as the region became more arid, the people adopted a more nomadic, pastoral way of life, as suggested by the presence of cattle bones in cave deposits and river camps.

Domesticated animals were clearly significant to these people. The engraved and painted rock art found widely across the region includes many vivid representations of animals, particularly cattle. However, no direct proof that these cattle were milked existed until now.

Researchers from the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry, with colleagues at Sapienza, University of Rome, studied unglazed pottery dating from around 7,000 years ago, found at the Takarkori rock shelter in the Tadrart Acacus Mountains in Libya.

Ryan, a consulting scholar in the Penn Museum’s Africa Section and an author on the study, had previously collected data on reference animal fats and plant remains from Kenya.

"Though the Kenyan remains have so far not turned up any evidence of dairying there, they were valuable in that they served as controls in our study of the Libyan samples," Ryan said.

The researchers used these reference samples to inform lipid biomarker and stable carbon isotope analyses of preserved fatty acids held within the fabric of the pottery.