How old is cheese?

Current research indicates that humans made cheese starting from 7,500 years ago. Earliest evidence is from perforated pottery fragments, that indicate they had tools like our modern day cheese strainers. Researchers from the University of Bristol in Britain with other international colleagues analyzed that fatty-acids were embedded in prehistoric pottery. They had been used to separate milk into curds for cheese and other lactose containing products. Until now, the earliest evidence of cheese-making came from depictions of milk processing in murals several thousand years younger than the pottery fragments. "The presence of milk residues in sieves ... constitutes the earliest direct evidence for cheese-making," said Mélanie Salque from Bristol, one of the authors of the research, which was published in the journal Nature. Cheesy goodness at sciencedaily.com