🌅 Scientists Baked Bread Using Yeast from a Mummy

SOURCE

Sarhan et al. (2026)

WHAT TO KNOW

• Researchers at Eurac Research in Italy baked a loaf of sourdough bread using yeast collected from Ötzi the Iceman, the famed 5,300-year-old glacier mummy found remarkably well-preserved in Alpine ice near the Italy-Austria border in 1991. The researchers analyzed ice found on Ötzi’s skin and meltwater from inside the mummy, discovering four ancient cold-adapted yeast species that survived to the present day. The team plans to test additional food applications for the yeast beyond bread, including beer.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The researchers say their work suggests the yeast traveled with Ötzi for millennia, underscoring how the mummy is “not a static relic, but a dynamic biological system.” Past research at Eurac has also identified genetic material found in Ötzi’s stomach and intestinal tract, finding his microbiome resembles that of other early humans, including bacteria rarely found in modern humans living in industrialized societies.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Ötzi the Iceman has been the subject of intense study since his discovery, shedding light on prehistoric people in Europe and how they lived. Research suggests Ötzi stood about 5 feet, 3 inches tall, and was in his 40s when he died, likely the victim of murder. His body, which also preserves the oldest tattoos ever discovered with a total of 61 markings, is housed inside a special refrigerated chamber at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in northern Italy.