Archaeologists in Egypt have confirmed that a substance unearthed from an ancient Egyptian tomb is cheese, the oldest ever discovered.
Several years ago, the team discovered jars in the tomb of Ptahmes, a high-ranking Egyptian official.
The archaeologists found a “solidified whitish mass” in one of the jars which they suspected was food but were unsure which kind.
Now a study has identified it as cheese, dating from 3,200 years ago.
The discovery is deemed important as this is the first time evidence of cheese production in Ancient Egypt has been found.
“The material analysed is probably the most ancient archaeological solid residue of cheese ever found to date,” said Dr Enrico Greco, from the University of Catania, who worked with colleagues at the Cairo University in Egypt to determine its identity.
“We know it was made mostly from sheep’s and goat’s milk, but for me it’s really hard to imagine a specific flavour.”
The ancient cheese would have had a “really, really acidy” bite, cheese historian and chemistry professor Paul Kindstedt told the New York Times.
The tomb where the cheese was found belonged to Ptahmes, an Egyptian official who was mayor of the ancient city of Memphis.
The burial site, at the Saqqara necropolis near Cairo, was first unearthed in 1885. But, after being lost to shifting sands, it was rediscovered in 2010.
