A sourdough loaf has been baked using yeast harvested from a 5,000-year-old mummy. The yeast came from Ötzi the Iceman, whose body was preserved in Alpine ice near the Italy-Austria border until hikers discovered him in 1991.
Yeast from a frozen corpse
Ötzi has been studied intensely since his discovery. His remains have given scientists a window into the lives of prehistoric Europeans. Now, researchers have taken that work a step further by extracting living yeast strains from his body and using them to make bread.
The team successfully cultivated the ancient microbes and mixed them into a sourdough starter. The resulting loaf was edible and, by all accounts, a successful experiment in paleo-baking.
From bread to beer
The scientists are not stopping at bread. They now plan to see whether the same yeast strains can be used to brew beer. If successful, the beer would be made with microbes that last lived inside a man who walked the Alps more than five millennia ago.
Local people in the Alpine region have long taken pride in Ötzi as a cultural touchstone. The idea of consuming food or drink made from his yeast adds a strange new layer to that connection. For residents near the discovery site, the project blends ancient history with modern curiosity in an unexpected way.
The research shows that organic material from deep in the past can still be functional today. Whether the yeast will produce a drinkable beer remains to be seen, but the bread has already proven that 5,000-year-old life can rise again.
