Archaeologists cracking away in Egypt have found the world’s oldest solid cheese, over 3300 years old.
The tomb of Ptahmes, former mayor of Memphis, has been unearthed since 1885, but now Saqqara Cairo University has found a dairy product made from a mix of sheep, goat and cow milk that resembles cheese. Announced in the American Chemical Society’s Analytical Chemistry journal, the discovery came after researchers tested the whitish contents of a jar found within the tomb.
“The material analysed in this study is probably the most ancient archaeological solid residue of cheese ever found to date,” the study said. Remains of cheese-like products older than the jar’s contents had previously discovered in Poland, China, and Egypt, but scientists say they were products of natural fermentation so were more like yoghurt than cheese.
Some people say cheese only gets better with age, but this cheese is not one you’ll want to try, as it’s littered with a deadly bacteria leaving the taste a total mystery.
The cheese doesn’t look beautiful either – nothing sits in a hole for 3000 years and comes out looking alright.
