Analysis of the samples of ancient feces showed that those who lived on the territory of modern Austria 2.7 thousand years ago, the people of the Iron Age drank beer and ate blue cheese. Article of the international team of researchers was published in the magazine Current Biology.
Researchers from Austria, Germany, Italy and the United States studied feces, preserved in salt mines near the city of Hallstatt, the development of which is carried out at least from the XIV century to our era. High salt content and permanent annual temperature at eight degrees Celsius allows you to maintain organic artifacts well there. Scientists analyzed four fossil human feces found in mines. The earliest of the samples is dated with the radiocarbon analysis of the end of the Bronze Age (about 1301-12121 to the new era, and the latest – middle of the XVIII century (1720-1783). Two more samples – dated 650-545 to our era – belong to Iron century.
In order to reveal the microbial and protein composition of petrified feces and identify the DNA contained there, scientists used microscopic, metagenomous and proteoma tests. It turned out that bran and husks of various cereals became the most common vegetable fragments. Rich carbohydrate diet complemented proteins from beans, fruits, nuts and products of animal origin. The intestinal microbi of the ancient miners reminded that those of those modern people whose society has not passed through the process of westernization, whose diet consists of products that are not undergoing technological processing, fresh fruits and vegetables.
Analysis of one of the samples of the Iron Age showed that Penicillium roqueforti and Sacchaomyces Cerevisiae and SacchaMyces Cerevisiae are widespread in it, used in the production of cheese with mold and beer, respectively. “Full-generic analysis indicates that both fungus were involved in the fermentation of food. This is the first molecular evidence of the consumption of blue cheese and beer in the European Age Europe,” one of the researchers, an employee of the private research center Eurac Research Frank Maxner.