Researchers discovered a substance identified as “kefir cheese” within a 3,600-year-old coffin at Xiaohe Cemetery in Xinjiang, China, opened in 2003. Initially mistaken for jewellery draped across a mummified woman’s neck, this cheese is now recognized as the world’s oldest.
Qiaomei Fu, a paleogeneticist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, described the cheese as “no longer soft but rather dry, dense, and resembling hard dust.” She noted the mummy’s remarkable preservation was due to the arid climate of the Tarim Basin desert, which helped maintain the coffin’s contents.
Fu’s team analyzed DNA from samples from three tombs in the cemetery to trace the evolution of cheese-making over thousands of years. They confirmed the substance as kefir cheese containing traces of goat and cow milk.
