Chinese scientists claim to have discovered the “world’s oldest cheese” in a desert mummy in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
According to a report on Thursday by the South China Morning Post, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University’s Third Hospital found DNA from goats and fermentation microorganisms in dairy samples dating back about 3,500 years. Such discovery was written in a paper published in the international journal Cell. The samples were collected from around the mummy at the Xiaohe cemetery in the southern Tarim Basin.
The researchers claimed that the Xiaohe people actively adopted pastoral culture from steppes and fermented dairy products like kefir cheese. They argue that fermentation became a crucial part of the Xiaohe culture, which later spread into the interior of East Asia.
They further stated that three dairy samples contained abundant proteins from ruminant milk, lactic acid bacteria, and yeast, confirming that these samples were indeed kefir cheese. Kefir cheese is made from fermenting the milk of goats, sheep, or cows. At the same site, mummies from the Tarim Basin had been discovered. These ancient mummies date back between 3,300 and 3,600 years.
The researchers asserted that the kefir cheese production process enabled genetically lactose-intolerant Xiaohe people to consume dairy products.
They explained that this discovery supports the theory that a “kefir culture” has existed in the Xinjiang region since the Bronze Age.
The researcher’s notion challenges the long-held belief that fermented milk originated from the North Caucasus region of present-day Russia.
Previously, the archaeologists couldn’t specify a white substance around the head and neck of the Xiaohe mummy 20 years ago. The researchers speculated it might be a fermented dairy product, but they could not determine it accurately. However, advancements in ancient DNA analysis have now resolved that mystery.
The researchers concluded, “By exploring dairy products, we have gained a clearer picture of ancient human life and their interactions with the world.”
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