Amazing stuff! Was it a smelly, aged cheese? 😊 Was it a grave offering? Might be an idea when the time comes to have some cheese and wine in the after world!
Found in the Xinjiang province (northwestern China) that is pretty close to France and Italy! Just kidding!
"... A cheese found in northwestern China is 3,600 years old and is the subject of a paper published today in the journal Cell. ...
the cheese was found alongside mummified corpses in the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang province. ...
Previously, the oldest cheeses in the world were found in Egypt. They dated to between 3,200 and 2,900 years ago. ...
Analysis revealed cow and goat DNA in the cheese samples. Unlike in many Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cheese-making techniques, the ancient Xiaohe people used different types of animal milk in separated batches. Further DNA analysis revealed that the cheese is kefir which is common today in western Eurasia. ...
Analysis revealed cow and goat DNA in the cheese samples. Unlike in many Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cheese-making techniques, the ancient Xiaohe people used different types of animal milk in separated batches. Further DNA analysis revealed that the cheese is kefir which is common today in western Eurasia. ...
The team found that the ancient L. kefiranofaciens was more closely related to the Tibetan group, challenging the long-held belief that kefir originated solely in the North Caucasus Mountain region of modern-day Russia. ..."
"... By reconstructing the fermentation microbial community, the study confirms that the cheese was made using lactic acid bacteria and yeasts. The researchers also discovered that the milk used to make the cheese came from a clade of goats widely distributed in Eurasia during the post-Neolithic period, distinct from contemporary domesticated goats from inland East Asia. ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• 3500 BP Lactobacillus genomes shed light on the origin of kefir in inland East Asia
• Bacterial-fungal dynamics reinforce resistance to exogenous microbes in ancient dairy
• Human-microbial interactions contribute to the adaptation of domesticated lactobacilli
• Goat DNA from dairy suggests communication between Xiaohe and the steppe populations
Summary
Despite the long history of consumption of fermented dairy, little is known about how the fermented microbes were utilized and evolved over human history. Here, by retrieving ancient DNA of Bronze Age kefir cheese (∼3,500 years ago) from the Xiaohe cemetery, we explored past human-microbial interactions. Although it was previously suggested that kefir was spread from the Northern Caucasus to Europe and other regions, we found an additional spreading route of kefir from Xinjiang to inland East Asia. Over evolutionary history, the East Asian strains gained multiple gene clusters with defensive roles against environmental stressors, which can be a result of the adaptation of Lactobacillus strains to various environmental niches and human selection. Overall, our results highlight the role of past human activities in shaping the evolution of human-related microbes, and such insights can, in turn, provide a better understanding of past human behaviors."
Bronze Age Lactobacillus Genomes Clarify Kefir History (original news release)
Bronze Age cheese reveals human-Lactobacillus interactions over evolutionary history (open access)
What a lucky mummy! Tarim mummies from the present-day Xinjiang region of Northwestern China.
Graphical abstract
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