animals could produce the nutritional equivalent of a slaughtered meat animal or more each year for several years, and in manageable daily increments Dairying is the most efficient means of obtaining nourishment from uncultivated land, and may have been especially important as farming communities spread outward from Southwest Asia Small ruminants and then cattle were almost surely first milked into containers fashioned from skins or animal stomachs The earliest hard evidence of dairying to date consists of clay sieves, which have been found in the settlements of the earliest northern European farmers, from around 5000 BCE Rock drawings of milking scenes were made a thousand years later in the Sahara, and what appear to be the remains of cheese have been found in Egyptian tombs of 2300 BCE Diverse Traditions Early shepherds would have discovered the major transformations of milk in their first containers When milk is left to stand, fatenriched cream naturally forms at the top, and if agitated, the cream becomes butter The remaining milk naturally turns acid and curdles into thick yogurt, which draining separates into solid curd and liquid whey Salting the fresh curd produces a simple, long-keeping cheese As dairyers became more adept and harvested greater quantities of milk, they found new ways to concentrate and preserve its nourishment, and developed distinctive dairy products in the different climatic regions of the Old World In arid southwest Asia, goat and sheep milk was lightly fermented into yogurt that could be kept for several days, sun-dried, or kept under oil; or curdled into cheese that could be eaten fresh or preserved by drying or brining Lacking the settled life that makes it possible to brew beer from grain or wine from ...Early shepherds would have discovered the major transformations of milk in their first containers When milk is left to stand, fatenriched cream naturally forms at the top, and if agitated, the cream becomes butter The remaining milk naturally turns acid and. .. more adept and harvested greater quantities of milk, they found new ways to concentrate and preserve its nourishment, and developed distinctive dairy products in the different climatic regions of the Old World In arid southwest Asia, goat and sheep... remaining milk naturally turns acid and curdles into thick yogurt, which draining separates into solid curd and liquid whey Salting the fresh curd produces a simple, long-keeping cheese As dairyers became more adept and harvested greater quantities of