World's Oldest Cheese Found on 3000-Year-Old Mummies in China

Oldest Cheese in History?

Mummies unearthed from northwest China stunned researchers when they saw cheese scattered on the mummies' heads and necks. According to experts, the cheese could have been packed as snacks for the afterlife, CNN reported. DNA tests recently conducted on the cheese found on the 3600-year-old mummies, have revealed many details about the substance's nature and origin. All the recent findings regarding the cheese have been noted in a study published in the Cell. 

Cheesemaking in the Past

Christina Warinner, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences and Anthropology at Harvard University, who wasn't involved in the study was excited about the findings of the DNA analysis, CNN reported. She stated that these days fermentation is done using only a handful of mostly lab-grown commercial strains of bacteria and yeasts. There is very little information regarding the heirloom microbes used by human ancestors to produce items like cheese, beer, and wine. Such a study, according to him, will aid experts in understanding how communities during that period preserved items and passed them down to make fermented food items.

Site of Discovery

The cheese was found on the mummified remains buried in the Xiaohe cemetery in the Tarim Basin. Researchers unearthed the mummies during the 1990s and were taken aback by the condition of the mummies as well as the white matter present on them. Experts later concluded that the dry environment in the desert helped in the preservation of mummies as well as the cheese. The mummies were buried with felted and woven clothing in unusual boat graves. According to past studies, the Xiaohe group was genetically isolated, but they were very accepting of the latest technologies and innovations. The new research aids in understanding the processes they employed in making their cheese and the kind they ate in their lifetimes. 

Kefir Cheese

Initially, when the mummies were discovered, the experts were unsure about the identity of the white matter found in the graves, Live Science reported. Later tests revealed that the white matter was cheese. DNA tests have further found that the mystery goo was kefir cheese, a probiotic soft cheese, which was manufactured using cow and goat cheese, thousands of years ago. The study also claimed that the cheese contained several bacterial and fungal species, including Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Pichia kudriavzevii, as per the DNA analysis. Both of these species, are present in modern-day kefir grains. Kefir grains are composed of  bacteria and yeast, which aids in fermenting milk to cheese. "This is the oldest known cheese sample ever discovered in the world," study senior author Qiaomei Fu, a paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, stated. "Food items like cheese are extremely difficult to preserve over thousands of years, making this a rare and valuable opportunity.

Impact of the discovery

Fu believes that studies on preserved cheese from the past times is essential because it can aid experts in understanding the diet and culture followed by human ancestors, Live Science reported. The recent study showcased to the researchers that L. kefiranofaciens grains were closely associated with similar grains that originated from Tibet dutring that time. The sequencing of bacterial genes in the cheese, as per the study, will help researchers in tracking the evolution of probiotic bacteria over the past 3,600 years. "Our observation suggests kefir culture has been maintained in Northwestern China's Xinjiang region since the Bronze Age," Fu said. "[We can] 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."