Shevan Wilkin

The Antiquity of Dairy in the Eastern Eurasian Steppe

Shevan Wilkin§, Erdene Myagmar§,£, William Taylor§,£, Richard Hagan§,£, Franziska Irmer§,£, Christian Trachsel§,£, Jonas Grossmann§,£, Nicole Boivin§,£, Christina Warinner§,£, Jessica Hendy§,£

§ MPI-SHH Department of Archaeogenetics Kahlaische Straße 10, 07745 - Jena, Germany; £ National University of Mongolia, Ulanbataar, Mongolia.

Dairy pastoralism is a primary subsistence strategy in Mongolia’s past and present. In particular, the consumption of fermented horse milk, airag, has a strong cultural place. Here we present a recent case study using shotgun proteomics to explore the antiquity of equine dairying in the ancient Eastern Eurasian steppe. To examine the time depth, geographic range, and diversity of milk consumption, proteins were extracted from ancient dental calculus from individuals across Mongolia between the Neolithic and Mongol Empire. We identified numerous dairy proteins from multiple animal sources, including a dramatic rise in the consumption of horse milk in the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1200 BC). The discovery of widespread equine dairy proteins occurs concomitantly with the inclusion of horses in ritual burial contexts, and the appearance of osteological morphologic evidence for horseback riding in the Eastern Eurasian Steppe. These data provide robust evidence of the dramatic shift of the economic role of Late Bronze Age horses, and how ruminant dairy was a key part of prehistoric subsistence strategies.