Slashdot Mirror


Humans Have Been Eating Cheese For At Least 7,500 Years

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers have found conclusive evidence for the first time that humans have been making cheese since the 6th millennium BC."

8 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. And cutting the cheese by colin_faber · · Score: 5, Funny

    for many many eons. :)

  2. Ob... by mrsquid0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Blessed are the cheese makers.

    --
    Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
    1. Re:Ob... by oneiros27 · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's not meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturer of dairy products

      --
      Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
    2. Re:Ob... by somersault · · Score: 5, Funny

      This bit is pretty funny

      The art in this cave -- called Lascaux, the Sistine Chapel of cave art -- and in many others that dot parts of France and Spain deservedly ranks with the greatest masterworks of Western art. Yet these paintings have provoked as much vexed speculation as they have wonder and awe: What was their purpose? Why are there so many pictures of animals? The painters had many colors at their disposal, but why do black and red dominate? Why are there no pictures of sky, moon or trees? What are the strange geometric signs found in many of the caves? Why are there few images of people? Just what does it all mean? Such questions have kept generations of scholars and archaeologists busy trying to find a definitive if ever elusive explanation.

      Just imagine if in 6000 years all they can find of our current generation is a memes site. Why are there all these images of cats? Why is the same image repeated so many time with different symbols over the top? Why are the animations all in 16 colours rather than a 32bit colour palette?

      --
      which is totally what she said
  3. Re:Yes, because cheese is.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This may come as a shock to you, but some of us find our history interesting and want to learn something other than the difference between the GPL 2.0 and GPL 3.0 or how much skin some "genius" chews off his foot in public places. This is interesting because it represented a huge leap forward for humans. It meant a greater variety of food sources were available which makes eating a much more stable proposition. It also meant that people could start making longer term plans.

    When those sorts of things happen the result is time to pursue things like "knowledge" and a greater understanding of the world around us. The reason that dweebs like us are free to enrich ourselves (i.e. browse pr0n on the web) is because it takes fewer people to produce the food that we eat. Obtaining sustenance is kinda high up on the list of priorities and is something everybody either does or thinks about multiple times per day.

    So yeah, this is kind of big news. This is a case where the information is in the main stream media because it is interesting for us as well as for the normals. Rather than complain that other people are interested in nerdy shit we should be happy that other people still have enough of a sense of curiosity to learn about this instead of simply trying to reach for the remote why spilling their cheetos all over themselves as they try to turn to the cartoon channel to get away from intesmegmalectual crap like this.

    Oh yeah, and next time you see something that is not interesting to you, you might want to try not complaining about it rather than trying to belittle anyone around you who might find it interesting. You know, kinda like the assholes who are always scoffing at your interest in the latest developments in the Python code base and how it impacts the postgrsql connector class.

  4. To eat cheese is to be human. by goodmanj · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Making and eating cheese, beer, and bread define what it is to be fully human. Any dirty ape can go club a mammoth and bring it back to its den, but to domesticate two different kinds of creatures (a mammal and a bacterium, or a grass and a yeast) and use one to rot the other and come out with something even tastier than the original? That requires massive intelligence, communication, tool use, planning, and social structure.

    (PS: if any modern cultures exist that don't eat cheese, beer, or bread, I don't mean to imply that they're not fully human. Their current environment might not have the resources to do these things, but you can bet their ancestors knew how.)

  5. Re:Wow. by Holladon · · Score: 5, Funny

    What are you, some kind of anti-cheesite?

    Talking about cheese is ALWAYS appropriate, in ANY context, and EATING cheese is even more appropriate. Anyone who says otherwise is an unrepetant philistine utterly lacking in taste and sophistication.

    Good DAY.

  6. Re:Obvious geek question, answered by WebManWalking · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It was prophesied somewhere in the first 6 books of the Aeneid that Aeneas and his men would someday be so hungry, they would eat their plates.

    Somewhere in the second 6 books, there came a time, after a battle or something, when they had broken all their dinnerware. Someone had the idea to flatten out some dough, put the food on top of it and cook them all together, baking the bread and cooking the food at the same time. While they were eating, Aeneas' son Iulus said hey look everybody, we're eating our plates! Most thought it was just a joke and laughed, but the elders didn't laugh. They were amazed and recognized it as the fulfillment of prophesy made before Iulus was born.

    So when you're in Italy and you hear of some restaurant claiming to have invented pizza in medieval times, be sure to ask them, really? How was it that Virgil was able to discuss something that your restaurant hadn't invented yet? Or something similarly snarky.