World's Oldest Cheese Found Buried With Chinese Mummies

3,800 year-old cheese chunks have been discovered in the bodies of equally old mummies in a Chinese desert, reports LiveScience.

The yellow cheese chunks were found as adornments in the necks and chests of the mummies in the Taklamakan Desert in China. Chunk sizes range from 1 to 2 centimeters and the cheeses were found in several tombs in the Xiaohe Cemetery, notes LiveScience.

However, USA Today remarks that the chunks of ancient cheese found in the tombs are unlike the cheeses known to mankind today. That is, the ancient cheese was made "by combining milk with a 'starter,' a mix of bacteria and yeast."

LiveScience says that the ancient civilization that made the after-life snacks most probably used microbes such as Lactobacillus and Saccharomycetaceae yeasts in the process. The resulting cheese had less salt content and lower lactose - "making them edible for the lactose-intolerant inhabitants of Asia," says USA Today.

According to USA Today, the same technique is still applied today "to make kefir, a sour, slightly effervescent dairy beverage, and kefir cheese, similar to cottage cheese."

Most cheeses these days are not made with a bacteria and yeast starter, but with rennet, which USA Today defines as "a substance from the guts of a calf, lamb or kid that curdles milk."

That ancient civilization actually made cheese is not the only surprising finding in the tomb. The mummies and the cheese pieces were also very well-preserved, says LiveScience.

LiveScience points out that the way the mummies were buried and the favorable environment might have aided the excellent preservation. "...hundreds of mummies buried in large, wooden coffins that resembled upside-down boats, which were then covered with cowhide that sealed the coffins from the air. The dry air and salty soil had left many mummies and their accessories extraordinarily well preserved," reports LiveScience.

In fact, USA Today says that the remains and other artifacts apart from the cheese were very well-preserved as if they were "vacuum-packed."

"The remains and grave goods were freeze-dried, preserving the light-brown hair and strangely non-Asian facial features of the dead along with their felt hats, wool capes and leather boots," reads the USA Today report.