"Oldest Cheese in the World Found in Bronze Age Tomb"...China Claims Fermented Dairy Culture

"Fermented Dairy Culture Existed in Xinjiang Region Since the Bronze Age"

Claims have emerged that the world's oldest cheese was discovered in a mummy from the desert of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China.

A mummy discovered in the Tarim Basin. Photo by South China Morning Post (captured)

According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 26th, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University Third Hospital, and others announced through a paper published the previous day in the international academic journal 'Cell' that they discovered an additional route through which kefir spread into the East Asian inland from Xinjiang. Kefir refers to a traditional fermented milk product from Russia and Eastern European countries made by fermenting milk.

According to the report, the researchers found DNA of goats and fermenting microorganisms in dairy product samples from about 3,500 years ago during the Bronze Age, scattered around the neck area of a mummy discovered at the Xiaohe Cemetery in the Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang. Proteins from ruminant milk, lactic acid bacteria, and yeast were confirmed in three dairy product samples obtained, identifying them as kefir cheese. Kefir cheese is a dairy product made by fermenting the milk of goats, sheep, and cattle.

The researchers explained, "The Xiaohe people actively adopted pastoralism from the steppe culture, and the related fermented dairy product, kefir cheese, became an important part of the Xiaohe culture and later spread into the East Asian inland."

The Tarim Basin is where Bronze Age mummies, estimated to have died about 3,300 to 3,600 years ago, were discovered. These mummies had Western features and attire but were revealed in 2021 to be direct descendants of ancient North Eurasians.

In previous research, the Chinese research team discovered that kefir cheese was made from the milk of cattle and goats, claiming that this aligns with historical records of kefir production using ruminant milk.

Fu Jiaomei, head of the Molecular Paleobiology Laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and lead researcher of this study, stated, "This discovery supports the idea that 'kefir culture' has existed in the Xinjiang region since the Bronze Age," adding, "It challenges the long-held belief that fermented milk beverages originated solely in the current North Caucasus region of Russia."