Cheese dating back 3,600 years found in Chinese tomb, researchers say

The world’s oldest piece of cheese has been discovered – found laid across a mummy’s neck.

A 3,600-year-old coffin was opened in the Xiaohe Cemetery in Xinjiang, China, during an excavation in 2003, where a substance was draped across the neck of a mummified young woman.

Despite seeming like a piece of jewellery at the time, scientists have now said they have identified the sample as the oldest piece of cheese in the world.

Qiaomei Fu, a paleogeneticist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, told Sky’s partner network NBC News: “Regular cheese is soft. This is not. It has now become really dry, dense and hard dust.”

She explained that when the woman’s coffin was exhumed, it was found to be well preserved because of the Tarim Basin desert’s dry climate.

While the production of cheese has been long depicted in history, the researchers wrote in a study – published in the journal Cell – that the “history of fermented dairy is largely lost in antiquity”.

Speaking to NBC News, Ms Fu said that she and her team took samples from three tombs in the Xiaohe Cemetery and processed the DNA to trace the evolution of the bacteria across thousands of years.

The samples were then identified as kefir cheese, made by fermenting milk using kefir grains, and there was also evidence of goat and cow’s milk being used.

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In their research, the team said the use of kefir cheese shows how Bronze Age populations interacted and how the Xiaohe people – who were known to be genetically lactose intolerant – consumed dairy before the era of pasteurisation and refrigeration.

They wrote: “These 3,500-year-old kefir cheese samples are among the few dairy remains preserved more than 3,000 years and were produced by the Bronze Age Xiaohe population – a population that possesses mixed lifestyles and techniques.”

However, when asked by NBC if the cheese was edible and if she would try it, Ms Fu said “no way”.