About 3,000 years ago, warriors on the riverbanks of the Tollense River in Northern Germany, a great battle was fought. Over the past decades, archaeologists have discovered skeletal remains of hundreds of warriors, giving us further understanding of our prehistoric brothers and sisters.
Many of us grew up with parents (or television ads) telling us that milk is the key to growing up big and strong, but new genetic testing reveals that the Tollense warriors were unable to process fresh milk. None of the warriors had the genetic mutation that allows adults to digest milk, an ability known as lactose persistence that’s common in many ancient Europeans.
One theory is that, at the time, the mutation gradually spread along with the development of agriculture and herding. As these ancient civilizations began utilizing milk, more people were able to build up a tolerance. People able to digest milk would be able to get more calories from their herds than those without, and more of their children would survive to pass on the gene.
