Researchers at University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin used a new technique of genome sequencing where they drilled into the dense petrous bone in the inner ear of ancient remains. The researchers were able to get genetic samples that were about 100 times better than what's been previously found, which was usually by a technique where scientists sequenced DNA from bacteria in the fossil.

The samples were from humans who lived in the Great Hungarian Plain in Eastern Europe from around 6000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. The authors of the study note that this was a location for cultural change that greatly left an impact on European prehistory. Though humans had been consuming dairy products since the Neolithic period, the researchers found that they did not develop the alleles necessary to break it down until the late Bronze Age, which ended around 1000 B.C. If you're lactose intolerant, you know that a creamy slice of cheese is sometimes too good to pass up, so you suffer through it anyway, just as the ancient Europeans did.

As hunter-gatherers and farmers intermarried, the skin pigmentation of humans lightened, but the researchers were surprised to see that this had no affect on increasing their tolerance toward lactose.

"This means that these ancient Europeans would have had domesticated animals like cows, goats and sheep, but they would not yet have genetically developed a tolerance for drinking large quantities of milk from mammals," lead researcher Ron Pinhasi stated.

As we all know, not all humans have the ability to digest dairy. In fact, you're more likely to be allergic to dairy products than not. Approximately 60 to 75 percent of the world suffers from lactose intolerance, depending on the report. If you aren't lactose intolerant, then you must be one lucky person.