中国千年木乃伊与世界最古老奶酪

Now that's vintage! World's oldest cheesediscovered on the chests of 3,500-year-old Chinese MUMMIES.

这才叫古老！3500年之久的中国木乃伊身上发现世界上最古老的奶酪。

Plenty of cheeses get better with age, butcrumbs discovered on the necks and chests of Chinese mummies are now thought tobe the world’s oldest vintage - although their taste may be questionable.

时间越久，奶酪的品质越好，但是中国木乃伊脖子和胸部上发现的奶酪屑被认为是世界上最古老的奶酪——尽管其味道令人怀疑。

The cheese dates back to 1,615BC and wasessentially vacuum-packed with the bodies of the mysterious Bronze Age peoplewho were buried in the Taklamakan Desert, making it the oldest ever recovered.

该奶酪可追溯至公元前1615年，真空包装在神秘的青铜时代的人物身上，被埋葬在塔克拉玛干沙漠中，这是目前为止发现的最古老的奶酪。

While the strange discovery was made in the1930s, scientists have only just analysed the proteins and fats in the clumpsof 3,600-year-old food to reveal its age and ascertain that it is not butter ormilk.

虽然发现于1930年代，科学家才只分析了这个块状物中的蛋白质和脂肪成分，才查明已有3600年之久，而且不是黄油或者牛奶。

Chemists at Germany's Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology andGenetics found that the cheese is a lactose-free variety that was quick tomake.

德国普朗克分子细胞生物学与遗传学学院的化学家发现这块奶酪不含乳糖，而这种不含乳糖的奶酪可快速制成。

It might have been responsible forspreading dairy farming across Asia in the Bronze Age, the said.

所以他们认为，青铜器时代的亚洲就是靠这种奶酪而大力发展了乳品业。

‘We not only identified the product as theearliest known cheese, but we also have direct evidence of ancient technology,’analytical chemist and study
author Andrej Shevchenkotold USA Today.

“我们不仅确定了这个奶酪是已知的历史最悠久的奶酪，我们还获得了古老技艺的直接证据，”分析化学家和研究作者Andrej Shevchenko对《今日美国》如是说。

The method of making the cheese was cheapand would have been used by common people, he said.

制作这种奶酪的方法很廉价，普通人可能都会做，他说。

The cheese survived because of the unusual conditions of River Cemetery NumberFive in the Takalamn Desert in north western China – the final resting place ofthe mummies.

这块奶酪之所以可以保存下来，是由于塔克拉玛干沙漠中五号河墓的特殊条件导致的——也就是这些木乃伊的安息之地。

They and the cheese were laid to rest onsand dunes near a river under large wooden boats wrapped so tightly in cow-hidethat the bodies were essentially vacuum-packed.

这些木乃伊和奶酪被放置在靠近一处河流的沙区上，被安放在大型的木船下，用牛皮紧紧包裹着，所以基本上尸体是真空包装的。