🌍 Anatolia and the Middle East
Also known as: Middle East, Near East, Anatolia, Asia Minor
One of the cradles of goat, sheep and cattle domestication; ayran, yogurt and camel milk among nomads.
Anatolia and the Middle East is a historic area where Europe, Asia and Africa meet, stretching from Asia Minor to the Arabian Peninsula. The Middle East is one of the cradles of dairying. It was here, in the Fertile Crescent, that goats, sheep and cattle were domesticated some 10,000–11,000 years ago. Traces of milk fat on pottery from Anatolia show that the first farmers of the peninsula’s northwest were already processing milk in the 7th millennium BC.
The hot climate dictated the main way to preserve milk: souring it. Yogurt and ayran, a diluted salty drink, are staples of Turkish cuisine; strained sour milk becomes labneh, and whey and milk are turned into many cheeses, including Cypriot halloumi. For centuries, the Bedouin nomads of the deserts lived on camel milk, especially on long journeys.
The region combines settled farming with pastoral herding, so dairy here is both everyday food and a sign of hospitality.
What it includes
How it connects to milk
🌍 Anatolia and the Middle East ← milked in ← 🐪 She-camel → gives → 🥛 Milk
Links
- Traditional products
- 🍶 Ayran, 🥣 Yogurt, 🧀 Halloumi, 🫙 Labneh, ⚪ Jameed, 🥣 Kashk
- Peoples
- 🧑🤝🧑 Turks, 🧑🤝🧑 Bedouin, 🧑🤝🧑 Cypriots, 🧑🤝🧑 Lebanese, 🧑🤝🧑 Palestinians, 🧑🤝🧑 Jordanians, 🧑🤝🧑 Iranians
- Dairy animals
- 🐪 She-camel
- Traditions
- 🫒 Olives, 🫒 Barnea
- Part of
- 🌍 World regions
- Wine and milk
- 🍷 Hajji Firuz Tepe
Frequently asked questions
Where did people first start milking animals?
Archaeological evidence places some of the earliest signs of dairying in the Middle East and Anatolia.
What is ayran?
A fermented milk drink made of yogurt diluted with water, usually salted; popular in Turkey and neighboring countries.
Why is milk soured in the Middle East?
In a hot climate fresh milk spoils quickly, while soured milk keeps longer.
History
What to read next
- ⚪ Jameed — A dried, salted yogurt of sheep's and goat's milk made in Jordan for centuries during the milk season. The key ingredient of mansaf, a dish on UNESCO's intangible heritage list.
- 🧑🤝🧑 Lebanese — The people of Lebanon on the eastern Mediterranean shore; their key dairy product is thick labneh, its balls kept in olive oil.
- 🐪 She-camel — Deserts of the Middle East, Africa and Kazakhstan. Its milk is made into shubat.
- 🍷 Hajji Firuz Tepe — An ancient settlement in Iran where traces of wine with resin were found in a jar.
- 🫒 Olives — The fruit of the olive tree, pressed for oil or cured and eaten as table olives.
Similar
🌍 Central Asia · 🌍 Balkans · 🌍 East Africa · 🌍 Caucasus · 🌍 North Africa · 🌍 Southern Europe
Sources
- From bowls to pots: The dairying revolution in Northwest Turkey, a view from Barcın Höyük, 6600 to 6000 BCE. PLoS One, 2024
- Lactase persistence in the Jordanian population: Potential effects of the Arabian Peninsula and Sahara's aridification. Heliyon, 2024
- Bridging Tradition and Innovation: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis of Turkish Fermented Foods. Foods, 2025