Mummy yeast – Scientists studying a 5,300-year-old frozen mummy’s gut found living yeast and other microbes, made sourdough from it in Italy, and even ate the loaf after it finally worked.
The idea alone sounds like it belongs in a nightmare: yeast pulled from the gut of a 5,300-year-old frozen mummy, turned into sourdough, and then eaten.
In Italy. researchers at the Eurac Research Institute in Bolzano studied what was living in the frozen remains of Oetzi the Iceman. discovered by two German hikers in 1991. The new work—led by Mohamed Sarhan. the lead author of a study published in the journal Microbiome on Wednesday—found that the mummy’s body hosted living organisms that could still function.
Sarhan said the body contains “living, metabolically capable organisms that are actively responding to their environment.” He added that “the cold-adapted yeasts are growing,” and that “certain bacteria have colonized and persisted across his tissues for decades.”
He described the frozen mummy as “a living biological interface — a meeting point between the ancient world and the present, where microbes from 5,000 years ago coexist with organisms that arrived last decade.”
Once they told people about the yeast, the experiment took a turn that no one could really stop. Sarhan explained: “If you tell anyone you have yeast, they immediately ask: can we use it for bread?”
So the team tried. The first sourdough attempt “didn’t work,” Sarhan said, but they succeeded three months later—and he described the result as “a very, very good sourdough.” Then, yes: they ate it.
The researchers are not finished with the organism, either. When asked if brewing beer was next, Sarhan answered, “It’s on the list.”
Oetzi was reportedly struck by an arrow in the back in the Alps on the border of Austria and Italy. and he remained frozen in ice until the 1991 discovery. Now. thousands of years later. his gut microbes have become something else entirely—an edible reminder that the past can still surprise the present.
Oetzi the Iceman Eurac Research Institute Bolzano Microbiome journal 5 300-year-old mummy yeast sourdough frozen mummy microbes Italy study
So they just yeeted yeast out of a dead guy and made bread??
I don’t get how any of that is alive after 5,300 years like what. Also sourdough starter is already kinda gross if you think about it, but this is next level.
Wait, they ate it like fully ate it? I mean if it grew for 3 months then cool I guess but also… what if it’s not actually from him and it’s contamination from the lab? They probably won’t say that part.
This sounds like one of those clickbait science stories. If it was that cold maybe it was like dormant bacteria, not “living” yeast. Plus “beer is on the list” nooooo I don’t want ice man beer in my life.