While forks are an ancient invention, they were originally used only for cooking and serving. Usage at the table most likely started in the Byzantine Empire, but still spread only very slowly. Forks only became commonplace in Britain and America in the last few centuries.

It turns out that this change has been reflected in our skulls. In the average mouth, our teeth now meet with a slight overbite—the front teeth rest slightly in front of the lower teeth. But prior to the adoption of the fork, we were used to using our teeth to rip pieces of food off, so the natural position for our teeth was edge on—our teeth rested clenched, as it were.

How Forks Gave Us Overbites and Pots Saved the Toothless – Scott Douglas – The Atlantic.

An article from the Wall Street Journal on recent findings that perforated pottery from 7,200 years ago was used for cheese-making. Not altogether surprisingly, this places the discovery of cheese-making in the same locale as the emergence of cattle-herding. Although some people think cheese was a way to avoid the lactose-intolerance,  lactose-tolerant genes arose about the same time in about the same place, suggesting that once we had cow milk to drink, we simply adapted to be able to drink it—Darwinism at work!

New Findings Point to Origins of Cheese-Making – WSJ.com.