In 2003, the world’s oldest cheese was discovered in the tomb of three ancient mummies in China. All of them were recovered in the Xiaohe Cemetery, a Bronze Age burial ground, with a strange white substance smeared around their necks. Upon further investigation, it was found to be 3,6000-year-old cheese, the oldest ever recovered.
For the past 20 years, scientists have examined the remains and tested the proteins found in the ancient curds. Recently, a group of researchers finished extracting and analyzing the cheese’s DNA.
According to their recently published study, it has been identified as a kefir cheese, a fermented yogurt-like product. “This is the oldest known cheese sample ever discovered in the world,” says Qiaomei Fu, co-author and paleogeneticist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in a statement. “Food items like cheese are extremely difficult to preserve over thousands of years, making this a rare and valuable opportunity. Studying the ancient cheese in great detail can help us better understand our ancestors’ diet and culture.”
Scientists found bacterial and fungal species, like Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Pichia kudriavzevii, which can be found in modern kefir. It’s a widely held belief that cheese during this time would have been soft. However, “these pale-yellow cheese samples smelled of nothing and were powdery to touch and a little crumbly,” as Fu explains.
Why Cheese Science Is Really Cool
But this discovery’s impact doesn’t end at food science. It provides a way to “track how probiotic bacteria evolved over the past 3,600 years” in China. Given that the Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens grains found on the mummies are closely related to others from Tibet. This suggests that people in northwest China may have interacted with Tibetans during the Bronze Age, for “cross-regional exchanges,” according to the study.
“Our observation strongly suggests the distinct spreading routes of two [kefir microbe] subspecies,” says Fu. This was more than likely enabled by nomadic groups traveling across Eurasia. Spreading the microbes not only via trading but also through storage containers.
“Human-microbial interaction is always fascinating,” says Yichen Liu, co-author, in a statement. “Fermentative microbes played such an important role in the daily life of these ancient humans, and they propagated these microbes for thousands of years without knowing the existence of them for most of the time.”
This cheese provides a new look at how cultures interacted before the existence/in the absence of written accounts.
