September 27, 2024, 10:33 AM
12131Would you care for for some 3,500-year-old cheese?
Yum! Cheese discovered inside coffin with ancient mummies dates back thousands of years
The cheese, made from goat's milk, is about 3,500 years old, scientists say
Published September 26, 2024 3:53pm EDT
Scientists retrieved ancient kefir cheese from Tarim Basin mummies dating back 3,500 years from the Xiaohe cemetery located in Xinjiang, Western China.
By analyzing the DNA of Bronze Aged cheese, scientists are able to provide insight into how the Xiaohe people lived and their interactions with animals.
Experts reconstructed the "fermentation microbial community" confirming the cheese was made using lactic acid bacteria and yeasts.
"This is an unprecedented study, allowing us to observe how a bacterium evolved over the past 3,000 years. Moreover, by examining dairy products, we’ve gained a clearer picture of ancient human life and their interactions with the world," FU Qiaomei, a paleogeneticist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), located in Beijing, said in a press release.
The dairy samples were found "scattered around the necks of the mummies in the coffin," according to the study, which was published in the Cell journal.
Scientists were able to confirm the cheese was made using goat’s milk.
"Our results highlight the role of past human activities in shaping the evolution of human-related microbes, and such insights can, in turn, provide a better understanding of past human behaviors," said a scientist who was involved in the study.
Kefir cheese is a soft, spreadable cheese made from fermented milk and a yeast and bacterial culture called kefir which separates milk into curds and whey, according to Kitchen Apothecary, a cooking blog.
The find suggest Tarim Basim people learned kefir production techniques from Eurasian steppe populations.
The study ais, "by tracking the evolution of a species that was propagated and consumed by humans over thousands of years, we were able to explore how human activities may impact microbial evolution through human-microbe interactions."
The scientists found that "making cheese through fermentation can extend the shelf life of dairy and alleviate the gastrointestinal symptoms caused by lactose intolerance."
