World’s Oldest Solid Cheese Found in 3,200-Year-Old Jar in Egypt

The world’s oldest solid cheese has been found inside the tomb of Ptahmes in Saqqara, part of the necropolis of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis.

Jar and canvas discovered inside the tomb of Ptahmes, Mayor of Memphis during the XIX dynasty. Image credit: Greco et al, doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b02535.

Ptahmes was Mayor of Memphis and high-ranking official under the Pharaohs Sethi I and Ramses II (1290-1213 BC) of the XIX dynasty.

His tomb is located in the south of the Causeway of the Pharaoh Unas which yields a number of tombs dated to the New Kingdom.

It was rediscovered in 2010 after a part of it was revealed in 1885 and lost under the sands at the end of the 19th century.

During the 2013/2014 excavation season, Cairo University archeologists found broken jars at the site.

One jar contained a solidified whitish mass, as well as canvas fabric that might have covered the jar or been used to preserve its contents.

A research team led by University of Catania archaeologist Enrico Greco wanted to analyze the whitish substance to determine its identity.

After dissolving the sample, the scientists purified its protein constituents and analyzed them with liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.

The peptides detected by these techniques show the constituting material was a dairy product obtained by mixing sheep/goat and cow milk.

“The characteristics of the canvas fabric, which indicate it was suitable for containing a solid rather than a liquid, and the absence of other specific markers, support the conclusion that the dairy product was a solid cheese,” the researchers said.

“Other peptides in the food sample suggest it was contaminated with Brucella melitensis, a bacterium that causes brucellosis.”

“This potentially deadly disease spreads from animals to people, typically from eating unpasteurized dairy products.”

The findings are published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

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Enrico Greco et al. Proteomic Analyses on an Ancient Egyptian Cheese and Biomolecular Evidence of Brucellosis. Analytical Chemistry, published online July 25, 2018; doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b02535