Oldest Cheese Found In Egypt

While excavating the 13th-century BCE tomb of Ptahmes, a high-ranking official in ancient Memphis, archaeologists uncovered a broken jar containing a solidified whitish mass. Scientific analysis of this substance revealed it to be a primitive form of hard cheese, preserved for over three millennia by the arid conditions of the Saqqara necropolis. Researchers determined its composition was a mixture of cow's milk and either sheep or goat's milk, which would have given it a sharp, acidic flavor profile, perhaps similar to a very hard feta or goat cheese. The process would have involved separating the curds from the whey and pressing them into a solid form, a sophisticated technique for the time.

Beyond its culinary significance, this ancient dairy product offered a grim insight into the health of the era. The cheese contained traces of the bacterium Brucella melitensis, the pathogen that causes brucellosis. This disease, often called "Mediterranean fever," is transmitted to humans through unpasteurized dairy products from infected animals and causes severe flu-like symptoms. The finding represents the earliest direct biomolecular evidence of the disease in history. This ancient snack was therefore not just a piece of food history, but also a potential health hazard, providing a fascinating and direct link between the diet and the diseases of the ancient Egyptians.