Scientists have discovered the world’s oldest cheese alongside 3,600-year-old mummies from the Tarim Basin in China. The ancient cheese is identified as kefir cheese and it was preserved on the heads and necks of the mummies found in the Xiaohe cemetery.
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Archaeologists unearthed mysterious white substances smeared on the heads and necks of several mummies in the Xiaohe cemetery of the Tarim Basin located in the present-day Xinjiang region of China.
These mummies dating back 3,300 to 3,600 years from the Bronze Age, were first thought to be associated with fermented dairy products.
Scientists couldn’t definitively identify the substance for two decades. With the advancement of ancient DNA analysis, researchers have now confirmed that this white substance was kefir cheese.
A team of researchers led by Yuanyuan Fu, extracted and analyzed mitochondrial DNA from the ancient cheese samples. They identified cow and goat DNA in the samples revealing that the Xiaohe people utilized milk from different animals in separate batches, unlike the mixed-milk cheesemaking practices commonly seen in ancient Greece and the Middle East.
The study identified an independent diffusion route for the strains of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens, a bacterium found in kefir grains from Xinjiang to inland East Asia.
The strains of bacteria from this ancient cheese evolved in interaction with human activity influenced by domestication and human preferences.
Interestingly, the Xiaohe people had distinctive cheesemaking practices. While cheesemaking in other ancient civilizations often involved blending different types of milk, the Tarim Basin people used separate batches of cow and goat milk.
This suggests that early East Asian cultures had their unique approach to food fermentation, differentiating them from their contemporaries in regions like the Middle East and Europe.
The ancient kefir cheese discovered on the mummies contained Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Pichia kudriavzevii both of which are still found in modern-day kefir grains. These grains are symbiotic cultures of probiotic bacteria and yeast, similar to sourdough starters, which ferment milk to produce kefir cheese.
The ability to sequence the bacterial genes from the 3,600-year-old kefir cheese allowed scientists to trace the history of probiotic bacteria.
A key finding was that the ancient Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens strains were aligned with the Tibetan group of modern-day Lactobacillus, challenging the belief that kefir originated exclusively in the North Caucasus region of modern-day Russia.
The study also revealed that Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens has undergone genetic exchanges with related strains over time.
These genetic changes have made modern Lactobacillus strains less likely to trigger immune responses in the human gut.
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The oldest cheese was made from goat and cattle milk, as indicated by the DNA analysis and involved the use of kefir grains tiny clumps of bacteria and yeast responsible for fermenting the milk into kefir cheese.
This discovery is important because it shows that the ancient Xiaohe people employed techniques similar to how kefir is still made today, passing down “heirloom microbes” through generations.
Unlike cheesemaking traditions in the Middle East and Greece, which often mixed different types of animal milk, the Xiaohe people appeared to use milk from a single animal type for each batch of cheese.
Hundreds of mummies were discovered at the Xiaohe cemetery, with many preserved with their facial features and hair intact, despite dating back up to 4,000 years.
The people of the Tarim Basin were genetically isolated, yet the cultural influences seen in their graves indicate they embraced new ideas and technologies.
The sequencing of the microbial DNA in the ancient kefir cheese revealed the presence of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Pichia kudriavzevii, species that are still found in modern kefir grains.
These microbes are responsible for fermenting milk into kefir, a process that allows dairy products to be stored and consumed longer without refrigeration, which was crucial for ancient populations in inhospitable climates like the Tarim Basin.
This research shows that the microbial strains used in kefir production have evolved over thousands of years, yet the basic process has remained consistent.
According to Qiaomei Fu, the study’s corresponding author from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, “Food items like cheese are extremely difficult to preserve over thousands of years, making this a rare and valuable opportunity.”
The preservation of this kefir cheese in the arid environment of the Tarim Basin allowed scientists to study it in great detail and gain insights into the ancient diet and culture.
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