Boffins found yeasts had infiltrated the body of Otzi the Iceman, whose mummified remains were found by hikers in the Austrian alps and researchers tested them to see if they could make sourdough
Scientists say they have made “very good sourdough” – from yeast found in a 5,000 year old corpse.
Boffins found yeasts had infiltrated the body of Otzi the Iceman, whose mummified remains were found by hikers in the Austrian alps in 1991. And researchers in Italy have now tested the remaining cold-adapted yeasts to see if they could make a sourdough from it.
Mohamed Sarhan, a microbiologist at the Eurac Research Institute for Mummy Studies, said: “It worked. As a dough, it was very very good.” He added that the yeasts could be cultivated by fermentation industries in the future to make bread or beer.
Otzi, who is believed to have been murdered by an arrow around 5,300 years ago, was dug from a glacier in the Ötztal Alps on the Austria–Italy border.
An inspection of his body found he was likely to have been his 40s when he died and was around 5’3″ tall. He is thought have eaten ibex, red deer and wheat just before his death.
He is Europe’s oldest known natural human mummy and his body has been subject to intensive research over the years. The yeasts are believed to have infiltrated his corpse shortly after his death and adapted to cold environments.
They have continued to colonise his mummified remains, despite his body being stored on an Alpine peak for thousands of years and in a refrigeration chamber at -6C since his discovery.
He contained gut microbes which are most commonly found in today’s non-Westernised communities, such as the Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania and people living in rainforests in north eastern Madagascar.
Dr Sarhan added: “We have two or three species that were never reported before in [Otzi’s] case that we know already are very rarely found in modern humans.”
Otzi is also covered in modern microbes that have been inadvertently introduced during conservation efforts.
It was not immediately clear whether these microbes and the ancient yeasts are harming the preservation of his remains.
Dr Sarhan said research is now needed to investigate this.
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