Dairy processing is no new thing in Finland

Finland’s love of milk is not a recent phenomenon as it seems that the ancient Finns were dairy farming at latitudes 60° north of the equator as long as 4500 years ago. This is equally as far north as Canada’s Northwestern territories, Anchorage in Alaska, Southern Greenland and near Yakutsk in Siberia.

Researchers at the Universities of Bristol and Helsinki used high-tech techniques to analyse residues preserved in fragments of ancient pots to establish that the Finns were prehistoric dairy farmers in spite of the harsh environmental conditions in the far north.

Researchers used a series of techniques, not just to analyse the ancient pots, but also to look at modern-day Finnish peoples’ ability to digest milk into adulthood.

By comparing the residues found in the walls of cooking pots from two separate eras and cultures, dating to circa 3900 BC to 3300 BC and circa 2500 BC, it was evident that the more recent pottery fragments showed evidence of milk fats.

This coincided with the transition from a culture of hunting and fishing - relying mainly on marine foods - to the arrival of ‘Corded Ware’ settlements which we now know saw the introduction of animal domestication.

Corded Ware sherds. Image credit: Finnish National Board of Antiquities

The Finns are the world’s biggest milk drinkers today but experts had previously been unable to establish whether prehistoric dairy farming was possible in the harsh environment that far north, where there is snow for up to four months a year.

The research has been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B and the lead author Dr Lucy Cramp, from the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at Bristol University, said: “This is remarkable evidence which proves that four and a half thousand years ago, Stone Age people must have been foddering and sheltering domesticated animals over harsh winters, in conditions that even nowadays we would find challenging.”

The results also drew a connection between the ‘Corded Ware’ farming settlers - who were likely to have been genetically different to the hunting and fishing communities - and modern-day Finns.

Fellow researcher Dr Volker Heyd added: “Our results show a clear link between an incoming prehistoric population, milk drinking and the ability to digest milk in adulthood still visible in the genetic distribution of modern Finland, which remains one of the highest consumers of dairy products in the world.”

Professor Richard Evershed, from the School of Chemistry, said: “It never ceases to amaze me that these sensitive chemical signatures of changing human life survive in the archaeological record for thousands of years. And it leaves one pondering, what was motivating the people to move into these challenging regions?”

The paper, ‘Neolithic dairy farming at the extreme of agriculture in northern Europe’ by Lucy J E Cramp, Richard P Evershed, Mika Lavento, Petri Halinen, Kristiina Mannermaa, Markku Oinonen, Johannes Kettunen, Markus Perola, Päivi Onkamo and Volker Heyd, can be read in full here.