Many of us have enjoyed watching the movie The Mummy. It is indeed an epic Hollywood creation. But did we ever notice the cheese inside the tomb after it was opened in any of the scenes? Well, a study published by the American Chemical Society in the journal Analytical Chemistry claims to have found the oldest cheese (presumably as old as 13th century BC in one of the Egyptian tombs! According to the study, the tomb of Ptahmes (mayor of Memphis in 13th century BC), had some broken jars inside it. Researchers found a white substance inside one such jar. Subsequent tests revealed that it was a dairy product. After checking the canvas cloth covering on the jar, the researchers concluded that the substance was most probably solid in nature. Further tests using light chromatography and mass spectrophotometry revealed that the white substance was actually solid cheese, although the researchers are not entirely sure as to how it got in there. The Egyptians perhaps did not want to part with their cheese even after dying.
Were they also singing in the scene? Perhaps Egyptians understood like the Swiss do today that music impact flavor…? It would not surprise me at all if they had that wisdom already.