World's oldest cheese found in Chinese cemetery

Aged cheese can possess quite a stench, so spare a thought for the archaeologists who discovered mummified bodies scattered with clumps of cheese that are more than 3600 years old.

The cheese crumbs were found in a cemetery in China's remote Taklimakan Desert. The unusual burial method saw the bodies snugly tucked inside wooden canoe-like coffins draped with cowhides.

Andrej Shevchenko, one of the German scientists who analysed the crumbs, told USA Today they “identified the product as the earliest known cheese”. Shevchenko likened the conditions to being “vacuum-packed”.

The research team's findings have been published online in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

While 7000-year-old cheese-making equipment has been discovered in Poland, no traces of cheese remained. Which means these crumbs are the record-holder for the world's oldest cheese. The Chinese cheese dates back as early as 1615BC and gives new meaning to the term vintage cheddar.

Sydney University archaeologist Alison Betts says dry desert conditions helped to preserve the bodies and prevent decay.

“It's an area of extraordinary organic preservation – which is very rare – it's very hot and dry,” Betts said.

As for why the bodies were buried with cheese, Professor Betts says many ancient civilisations were buried with foodstuffs.

“When they were buried quite a variety of goods were buried with them, sacks of grain, bunches of sticks. They were buried with the goods that they were using in life – so the cheese just represented part of the normal diet,” Betts said.

“There's a lot of ritual associated with the burial. We don't know, but they may be thinking of the afterlife.”