The world’s oldest cheese sheds light on ancient Chinese culture

FOr more For more than 3,500 years, the mummified remains of the Xiaohe people have been lying undisturbed in a desert cemetery in Xinjiang in western China. Then, in 1979, a team of archaeologists got their hands on it. Among the treasures they unearthed were mysterious white lumps scattered on the necks of the mummies: pieces of the oldest preserved cheese in the world.