2. Remains of Beer and Moldy Cheese Found in 700-Year-Old Feces

2. By examining a 700-year-old human feces, researchers discovered that Iron Age Europeans consumed blue cheese and beer. Thus, they discovered that the taste of our ancestors was not much different from today.

A detailed study of stool samples from the Hallstatt-Dachstein/Salzkammergut salt mines in Austria revealed two types of fungi: ‘Penicillium roqueforti’ and ‘Saccharomyces cerevisiae’ (also known as brewer’s yeast).

These two fungi are still widely used today in the production of moldy cheese and beer, giving historians an idea not only of what our distant ancestors ate, but also of how sophisticated food and drink-making techniques were.

People of Iron Age Europe consumed beer and moldy cheese.

“Our genome-wide analyzes show that both fungi were involved in food fermentation, and there is evidence of moldy cheese and beer consumption in Iron Age Europe,” said Frank Maixner, a microbiologist at the Eurac Institute for Mummy Studies in Italy.

Researchers think that the meals of these Europeans living in those years were rich in fiber and carbohydrates. Beans, fruits, nuts and animal food products were probably used as supplements to their main meals, they said.

2. You may be wondering how a 700-year-old stool was preserved. Very specific environments are needed for the preservation of feces. For example, a dry cave like this salt mine, a frozen habitat or a desert. Let’s say that this excrement has been preserved, you can say that beer and cheese date back to the very old times of humanity, but there is a situation like this: The mushrooms found in this stool provide important information about people’s eating habits.