Little Miss Muffet could have been separating her curds and whey 7,500 years ago, according to a new study that finds the earliest solid evidence of cheese-making.

Scientists performed a chemical analysis on fragments from 34 pottery sieves discovered in Poland to determine their purpose. Until now, experts weren't sure whether such sieves were used to make cheese, beer or honey.

Though there is no definitive test for cheese, Richard Evershed at the University of Bristol and colleagues found large amounts of fatty milk residue on the pottery shards compared to cooking or storage pots from the same sites. That suggests the sieves were specifically used to separate fat-rich curds from liquid whey in soured milk in a crude cheese-making process.

``It's a very compelling forensic argument that this was connected to cheese,'' Evershed said. ``There aren't many other dairy processes where you would need to strain,'' he said. He and colleagues weren't sure what kind of milk was used, but said there were lots of cattle bones in the region. The study was published online Wednesday by the journal Nature.

``This is the smoking gun,'' said Paul Kindstedt, a professor of nutrition and food sciences at the University of Vermont and author of ``Cheese and Culture.'' He was not involved in the study.

``It's almost inconceivable that the milk fat residues in the sieves were from anything else but cheese,'' Kindstedt said, adding that many experts suspected cheese was being made in Turkey up to 2,000 years earlier than this latest finding in Poland but that there was no definitive proof.

He said the discovery of cheese making marked a major development for Neolithic people and gave them a survival advantage by allowing them to turn milk into a form that provided essential calories, proteins and minerals. At that time, the adult population was largely lactose intolerant, so making a product with less lactose, like cheese, allowed everyone to digest the nutrients in milk.

Kindstedt said the earliest cheeses were likely similar to spreadable cheeses like ricotta and fromage frais. He guessed that people either ate them soon after they were made or buried them in pots for months afterwards, saving them for the winter when food was scarce.

Cheeses also served to spice up the Neolithic diet. ``Food was incredibly dull and monotonous,'' Kindstedt said, noting the prehistoric farmers' dependence on grain porridge.

After being buried in the ground for months, he said, the cheeses would have been non-perishable, ``bomb-proof'' and pretty pungent. 

``They probably would not be the first choice for a lot of people today,'' Kindstedt he said. ``But I would still love to try it.''

<한글 기사>

"신석기시대에도 치즈 먹었다"

7천500년 전 신석기시대의 인류가 치즈를 만들어 먹었다는 과학적 증거가 발견됐다.

영국 브리스톨대학교의 리처드 에버쉐드 교수와 연구진은 폴란드의 신석기시대 유적지에서 발굴된 조리 용기에서 지방이 많이 함유된 우유 잔여물을 발견했다는 연 구 결과를 12일(현지시간) 과학전문지 '네이처'에 발표했다.

연구진은 요리 및 저장용으로 사용됐을 여러 도자기 조각들 가운데 유독 지방 잔류물이 많이 남아 있는 파편들을 발견했고, 당시 여과기(체) 용도로 사용됐을 것으로 추정되는 34개의 파편 일부에 대해 화학적 분석을 실행했다.

그 결과 이들 용기가 치즈를 만들 때 우유의 유장(乳漿)에서 응유(凝乳)를 분리 하기 위한 도구였음을 밝혀냈다.

앞서 전문가들은 치즈가 약 9천년 전 터키에서 처음으로 만들어지기 시작했다고 추측했으나 확실한 증거를 발견하지 못하고 있었다.

에버쉐드 교수는 "여과용 용기가 치즈와 관련됐다는 사실이 법의학적으로 뒷받침된다"면서 "유적 현장에서 많은 소뼈가 발견된 점이 이를 입증한다"고 말했다.

'치즈 앤드 컬쳐(Cheese and Culture)'의 저자이자 버몬트대학교 식품영양학 교 수인 폴 킨드스테트도 "이번 연구 결과는 명백한 증거"라면서 "여과 용기에서 나온 우유 지방 잔여물이 치즈가 아닌 다른 데서 왔다고 생각할 수 없다"고 말했다.

그러면서 신석기시대 인류에게 치즈 제조법의 발견은 발전의 주요 계기였고, 생 존에 도움이 되는 일이었을 것이라고 덧붙였다.

당시의 인류는 대부분 우유의 젖당에 내성이 없었고, 젖당을 덜 함유한 치즈를 만들어 먹기 시작하면서 우유의 열량과 단백질, 무기질을 충분히 섭취할 수 있었다.

그는 또 신석기시대 인류가 겨울철 식량이 없을 때를 대비해 치즈를 비축하거 나 치즈로 더욱 다양한 음식을 만들어 먹었을 것이라고 말했다.