It is unknown whether this was a decoration or a snack for the afterlife. But it nevertheless confirms that 3,600 years ago, in this province in the northwest of China, cheese was already sufficiently in the spotlight that it was considered important that it accompanies at least three of these people in their coffin.
The dry conditions of this semi-desert region contributed to the state of preservation of the bodies in question, which still had some of their clothing, including a hat and a coat. These are the same conditions that allowed the identification of the cheese, since the residue still contained enough genetic sequences to analyze both the origin of the dairy product and some of the microbes present.
This is how cow and goat genes are found, suggesting that the cheese was made from the milk of both animals. As for the species of bacteria and yeast, they are those which, by coagulating milk in the form of what are called kefir grains, probably made these fragments a big brother of current kefir cheese.
No one seems inclined to want to taste this cheese. But in an interview with New York Timeslead researcher, paleogeneticist Qiaomei Fu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, says she is confident that with the available information, it would be possible to recreate it.
Previous findings had identified older fat residue, which was likely cheese (or yogurt). Particularly inside a terracotta container 7000 years old. But this is the first time that we can identify such an ancient fragment beyond any doubt. The study was published on September 25 in the magazine Cell.
