In European and many African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian populations, lactase persistence (LP) is the most strongly selected monogenic trait to have evolved over the past 10,000 years¹. Although the selection of LP and the consumption of prehistoric milk must be linked, considerable uncertainty remains concerning their spatiotemporal configuration and specific interactions^2,3. Here we provide detailed distributions of milk exploitation across Europe over the past 9,000 years using around 7,000 pottery fat residues from more than 550 archaeological sites. European milk use was widespread from the Neolithic period onwards but varied spatially and temporally in intensity. Notably, LP selection varying with levels of prehistoric milk exploitation is no better at explaining LP allele frequency trajectories than uniform selection since the Neolithic period. In the UK Biobank^4,5 cohort of 500,000 contemporary Europeans, LP genotype was only weakly associated with milk consumption and did not show consistent associations with improved fitness or health indicators. This suggests that other reasons for the beneficial effects of LP should be considered for its rapid frequency increase. We propose that lactase non-persistent individuals consumed milk when it became available but, under conditions of famine and/or increased pathogen exposure, this was disadvantageous, driving LP selection in prehistoric Europe. Comparison of model likelihoods indicates that population fluctuations, settlement density and wild animal exploitation—proxies for these drivers—provide better explanations of LP selection than the extent of milk exploitation. These findings offer new perspectives on prehistoric milk exploitation and LP evolution.

在欧洲和许多非洲、中东和南亚人群中，乳糖酶持久性 (LP) 是过去 10,000 年来进化出的最强烈选择的单基因性状¹ 。尽管LP的选择和史前牛奶的消费必须联系起来，但它们的时空结构和特定相互作用仍然存在相当大的不确定性^2,3 。在这里，我们使用来自 550 多个考古遗址的约 7,000 件陶器脂肪残留物，提供了过去 9,000 年来欧洲各地牛奶开采的详细分布。欧洲牛奶的使用从新石器时代开始就很广泛，但在空间和时间上的强度有所不同。值得注意的是，LP 选择随史前牛奶开采水平的变化而变化，在解释 LP 等位基因频率轨迹方面并不比新石器时代以来的均匀选择更好。在英国生物银行^4,5的 500,000 名当代欧洲人队列中，LP 基因型与牛奶消耗量只有微弱的相关性，并且与改善的健康或健康指标没有显示出一致的相关性。这表明，LP 频率的快速增加应考虑其有益效果的其他原因。我们认为，乳糖酶非持久性个体在可以获得牛奶时就会消耗牛奶，但在饥荒和/或病原体暴露增加的条件下，这是不利的，从而推动了史前欧洲的乳糖酶选择。模型可能性的比较表明，人口波动、定居密度和野生动物剥削（这些驱动因素的代表）比牛奶剥削的程度更能解释LP的选择。这些发现为史前牛奶开采和乳汁进化提供了新的视角。