Aged cheeses might have an appeal but a 3,200-year-old sample of the popular dairy product found in Egypt may be just a little too old — and diseased — for even the most dedicated cheese connoisseurs.

The cheese was found in the tomb of Ptahmes, a 13th-century BC mayor of Memphis, Egypt, and according to a new study in the journal Analytical Chemistry it is probably the most ancient solid cheese ever discovered.

….The team used unconventional scientific techniques to identify it as the remains of a solid cheese made from cow milk and sheep or goat milk.

They also found signs of a bacterium that causes the potentially deadly disease brucellosis, which spreads from animals to people via unpasteurised dairy products.

If the researchers’ suspicions are confirmed, the 3,200-year-old sample will also provide the world’s oldest reported biomolecular evidence of brucellosis.

Full Report

Bubblecar said:

Aged cheeses might have an appeal but a 3,200-year-old sample of the popular dairy product found in Egypt may be just a little too old — and diseased — for even the most dedicated cheese connoisseurs.

The cheese was found in the tomb of Ptahmes, a 13th-century BC mayor of Memphis, Egypt, and according to a new study in the journal Analytical Chemistry it is probably the most ancient solid cheese ever discovered.

….The team used unconventional scientific techniques to identify it as the remains of a solid cheese made from cow milk and sheep or goat milk.

They also found signs of a bacterium that causes the potentially deadly disease brucellosis, which spreads from animals to people via unpasteurised dairy products.

If the researchers’ suspicions are confirmed, the 3,200-year-old sample will also provide the world’s oldest reported biomolecular evidence of brucellosis.

Full Report

Hard cheese.

Bubblecar said:

Aged cheeses might have an appeal but a 3,200-year-old sample of the popular dairy product found in Egypt may be just a little too old — and diseased — for even the most dedicated cheese connoisseurs.

The cheese was found in the tomb of Ptahmes, a 13th-century BC mayor of Memphis, Egypt, and according to a new study in the journal Analytical Chemistry it is probably the most ancient solid cheese ever discovered.

….The team used unconventional scientific techniques to identify it as the remains of a solid cheese made from cow milk and sheep or goat milk.

They also found signs of a bacterium that causes the potentially deadly disease brucellosis, which spreads from animals to people via unpasteurised dairy products.

If the researchers’ suspicions are confirmed, the 3,200-year-old sample will also provide the world’s oldest reported biomolecular evidence of brucellosis.

Full Report

Had to look up brucellosis, I’m hopeless at diseases. A bacterial disease of sheep and other animals transferred by unpasteurized milk. So that’s why we have pasteurisation.

“Dr Greco, part of the burgeoning new field of archaeofood, was also involved in other ancient food discoveries. During the last year we found the oldest wine in the world (now become the second) and the oldest Italian olive oil.”

Cheese, wine and olive oil, foods that preserve well. Now all they need to find is crackers.

> The team used unconventional scientific techniques

Well, what are they? Checks article https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.analchem.8b02535 . Hmm, proteomic analysis, that is unconventional for archaeology.

From abstract.

> Our biomolecular proteomic characterization of this archeological sample shows that the constituting material was a dairy product obtained by mixing sheep/goat and cow milk. The interactions for thousands of years with the strong alkaline environment of the incorporating soil rich in sodium carbonate and the desertic conditions did not prevent the identification of specific peptide markers which showed high stability under these stressing conditions. Moreover, the presence of Brucella melitensis has been attested by specific peptide providing a reasonable direct biomolecular evidence of the presence of this infection in the Ramesside period for which only indirect paleopathological evidence has been so far provided.

Unpasteurised dairy products were eaten and drunk for thousands of years and even today in vast areas of the world.
And now they tell us it’s wrong.

Peak Warming Man said:

Unpasteurised dairy products were eaten and drunk for thousands of years and even today in vast areas of the world.
And now they tell us it’s wrong.

It does seem to have mostly stopped the spread of tuberculosis and brucellosis. I had a friend contract the latter. She was very sick for a very long time even with (then, 1980s) modern medicine.

Michael V said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Unpasteurised dairy products were eaten and drunk for thousands of years and even today in vast areas of the world.
And now they tell us it’s wrong.

It does seem to have mostly stopped the spread of tuberculosis and brucellosis. I had a friend contract the latter. She was very sick for a very long time even with (then, 1980s) modern medicine.

Though lots of Australians have used unpasteurised products with little apparent harm, mostly this was done on their own farm. Pasteurised milk seems to have saved the vast majority from a potential risk. I do know a vetinarian who accidentally stabbed himself with brucellosis. Knocked him about quite seriously.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listeria

Listeria can be found in soil, which can lead to vegetable contamination. Animals can also be carriers. Listeria has been found in uncooked meats, uncooked vegetables, fruit such as rockmelon and apples, pasteurized or unpasteurized milk, foods made from milk, and processed foods