Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/Z504336/1
Investigating Milk Consumption by Neolithic Farmers using a Novel Calcium Isotope Proxy (NeoCalcium)
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr M Roffet-Salque, University of Bristol, Chemistry
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor MG Thomas, University College London, Genetics Evolution and Environment
- Grant held at:
- University of Bristol, Chemistry
- Science Area:
- None
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- None
- Science Topics:
- None
- Abstract:
- Milk and dairy products were introduced relatively recently to the human diet but have had a profound impact on our biology since, with 1 in 3 adults worldwide now being able to digest lactose. Milk production in the past has been assessed through the archaeological study of domesticated animal skeletal elements and the reconstruction of herd management strategies using animal kill-off profiles. Milk use and processing has been inferred through the study of dietary lipids trapped in the ceramic walls of pots during cooking. These methods have provided crucial insights into milk production and use in the past. However, assessing milk consumption in prehistoric populations remains challenging. This project aims to use the calcium isotope signal contained in human skeletal remains to quantify milk consumption at the individual level and explore the links between milk consumption and ecological, nutritional, cultural and genetic factors in the early farming communities of Europe and Southwestern Asia. To achieve this, we will first calibrate the relationship between the calcium isotope composition of diet and consumer tissues using calcium-containing foodstuffs, modern humans from a birth cohort longitudinal study (ALSPAC, known as Children's of the 90s study) and an animal model (pigs). We will then use this calibration to quantify milk consumption in past populations via the analysis of ancient human skeletal remains. We will target populations from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) to investigate the dietary shift immediately following animal domestication. Post-PPN populations will also be studied to understand milk consumption at sites where perishable containers may have been used for milk processing and thus where the analyses of dietary lipids preserved in pottery vessels may have underestimated milk use. Finally, we will target genotyped archaeological individuals from Europe and Southwestern Asia to test the link between the presence of lactase persistence alleles and milk consumption. This project will aim to test, using a model comparison framework, the link between milk consumption and ecological, nutritional, cultural and genetic factors. This project is highly interdisciplinary, with environmental chemistry, archaeology, genetics, and epidemiology at its heart. This research will provide a novel proxy for milk consumption in ancient populations that is complementary to lipid residue analyses of pottery sherds, thus expanding the compendium of diet-informative isotopes. The project will reveal - for the first time - the individual-level correspondence between prehistoric milk consumption and lactase persistence, and so provide an 'as it is happening' perspective on the evolution of the most advantageous monogenic human trait to have evolved in the last 10,000 years. Our study of modern populations from the ALSPAC study will increase our understanding of calcium homeostasis in human populations, opening the way to studies on Ca-related health issues, e.g. artery calcification and osteoporosis.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/Z504336/1
- Grant Stage:
- Awaiting Start Confirmation
- Scheme:
- Research Grants
- Grant Status:
- Accepted
- Programme:
- Pushing the Frontiers
This grant award has a total value of £840,337
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DA - Estate Costs | DI - Staff | DI - T&S | DA - Other Directly Allocated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £76,256 | £281,113 | £18,659 | £81,118 | £368,175 | £12,604 | £2,410 |
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