Question: Since what historic period has the area known for its Crottin de Chavignol goat cheese been inhabited?

Passages:
The Piute Pass Archeological District is an archaeological district located along Piute Creek in eastern San Bernardino County, California.  The district encompasses the area around the historic Fort Piute and includes a variety of prehistoric and historic resources.  The Piute Pass area was inhabited by several Native American tribes dating back to the middle Holocene epoch.  The Patayan people lived in the area during the late prehistoric period, while the Chemehuevi people lived there after the Patayan and through the early historic period.  Both groups left petroglyphs in the area, and remains of Chemehuevi habitation sites have also been discovered.  After European settlers came to the region, the pass became the site of Fort Piute, a U.S. Army redoubt which protected travelers along the Mojave Road. TINE SA (] ) is the largest Norwegian dairy product cooperative consisting of around 15,000 farmers and 5,600 employees.  As of 2013, it has a revenue of 20.4 billion Norwegian kroner (NOK). ($3.41bn, £2.04bn, €2.50bn) The parent company, TINE SA, is a cooperative society owned by its suppliers, the milk producers who deliver milk to the company.  The corporation domestically offers the entire spectrum of dairy products, and in many dairy categories Tine faces little or no domestic competition.  This monopolistic position has led to criticism of Tine when shortages occur.  Tine's internationally known products are Jarlsberg cheese, Snøfrisk goat cheese, Ridder cheese, and Ski-Queen (geitost).  Tine is the most dominant of the thirteen agricultural cooperatives in Norway. The Loire Valley (French: "Vallée de la Loire" , ] ), spanning 280 km , is located in the middle stretch of the Loire River in central France, in both the administrative regions Pays de la Loire and Centre-Val de Loire.  The area of the Loire Valley comprises about 800 km2 .  It is referred to as the "Cradle of the French" and the "Garden of France" due to the abundance of vineyards, fruit orchards (such as cherries), and artichoke, and asparagus fields, which line the banks of the river.  Notable for its historic towns, architecture, and wines, the valley has been inhabited since the Middle Palaeolithic period.  In 2000, UNESCO added the central part of the Loire River valley to its list of World Heritage Sites. Laura Chenel is a cheese maker who was America's first commercial producer of goat cheese, and helped to popularize goat cheese in America.  In 1979, she began producing chèvre in the Bay Area town of Sebastopol, California, after a fact-finding trip to visit goat cheese producers in France.  After several months of working to sell her product to local markets (with mixed success, due to American unfamiliarity with goat cheeses at the time), she received her first major opportunity when Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California placed a standing order for her cheese in 1980.  Waters listed the cheese by name on her menu (as "Laura Chenel's Chèvre", in what may have been the first American instance of goat cheese salad), which provided Chenel with a great deal of publicity.  Eventually, her operation would grow to sell over two million pounds of cheese per year.  The company primarily manufactures fresh chèvre, although aged cheeses make up roughly 10% of its business.  In 2006, Chenel sold the company to the Rians Group, a French corporation which has purchased multiple small farming operations, while retaining ownership of her herd of five hundred goats. Queijo de Cabra Transmontano (Transmontano Goat's Cheese) is a type of cheese made from goat milk (goat cheese) from Alto Trás-os-Montes, Norte Region, Portugal.  It has a Protected designation of origin (PDO) and is listed on the Ark of Taste. Santarém is a goat cheese from Portugal produced in several different regions, most notably in the Santarém district and in Serra de Santo António.  It is considered to taste best ripe after aging, in servings of between 50 grams to 100 grams.  Best production practices call for its being preserved in good quality edible oil. Flor de Guía cheese is a Spanish cheese (Spanish: "Queso de Flor de guía" ) made on the island of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands.  It has Denomination of Origin protection.  The cheese is classified as fatty or semi-fatty and made from the milk from Canarian sheep, with milk from Canarian cows and/or goats.  The milk from the sheep must constitute at least 60% and cows’ milk content must never exceed 40%.  Goat milk must never exceed 10% of the mixture.  The cheese is presented in flat cylindrical cheeses which normally measure 4–8 cm (1.5-3 inches) high and 20-30 cm (8-12 inches) across and weighing between 2 and 5 kg (4.5-11 pounds).  The cheese gets its name from an area in northern Gran Canaria called Santa María de Guia, where the cheese is made, and ‘flor’ from the fact that juice from the flowerheads of a species of cardoon and globe artichoke are used to curdle the milk. Crottin de Chavignol is the most famous goat cheese of the many varieties produced in the Loire Valley.  This cheese is the claim to fame for the village of Chavignol, France, which has only two hundred inhabitants. Chabichou (also known as Chabichou du Poitou) is a traditional soft, unpasteurized, natural-rind French goat cheese ("or Fromage de Chèvre") with a firm and creamy texture. Berber cuisine differs from one area to another within North Africa.  For this reason, every dish has a distinct and unique identity according to the specific region it originates from in North Africa, with some dishes estimated to be more than a thousand years old.  Zayanes of the region of Khénifra around the Middle Atlas have a cuisine of a remarkable simplicity.  It is based primarily on corn, barley, ewe's milk, goat cheese, butter, honey, meat, and game.  Popular authentic Berber dishes of Tunisian, Moroccan, Algerian, and Libyan cuisine include tajine, couscous, shakshouka, pastilla, msemen, merguez, asida, lablabi, harissa, makroudh, harira, sfenj, and ahriche.

Supporting sentences:
Crottin de Chavignol is the most famous goat cheese of the many varieties produced in the Loire Valley. The Loire Valley (French: "Vallée de la Loire" , ] ), spanning 280 km , is located in the middle stretch of the Loire River in central France, in both the administrative regions Pays de la Loire and Centre-Val de Loire.  Notable for its historic towns, architecture, and wines, the valley has been inhabited since the Middle Palaeolithic period.