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

FOR MORE than 3,500 years the mummified stays of the Xiaohe individuals lay undisturbed in a desert cemetery in Xinjiang in western China. Then, in 1979, a staff of archaeologists bought their fingers on them. Among the many treasures they dug up have been mysterious white lumps strewn throughout the mummies’ necks: chunks of the oldest preserved cheese on this planet.