The introduction of farming had far-reaching impacts on health, social structure and demography. Although the spread of domesticated plants and animals has been extensively tracked, it is unclear how these nascent economies developed within different environmental and cultural settings. Using molecular and isotopic analysis of lipids from pottery, here we investigate the foods prepared by the earliest farming communities of the European Atlantic seaboard. Surprisingly, we find an absence of aquatic foods, including in ceramics from coastal sites, except in the Western Baltic where this tradition continued from indigenous ceramic using hunter-gatherer-fishers. The frequency of dairy products in pottery increased as farming was progressively introduced along a northerly latitudinal gradient. This finding implies that early farming communities needed time to adapt their economic practices before expanding into more northerly areas. Latitudinal differences in the scale of dairy production might also have influenced the evolution of adult lactase persistence across Europe.

• MeSH
• archeologie MeSH
• chov zvířat dějiny   MeSH
• dějiny starověku MeSH
• izotopy uhlíku MeSH
• keramika MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• lipidy chemie   MeSH
• mléčné výrobky analýza   MeSH
• mlékárenství dějiny   MeSH
• plynová chromatografie s hmotnostně spektrometrickou detekcí MeSH
• zemědělství dějiny   MeSH
• zeměpis MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• dějiny starověku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• historické články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa MeSH