Faeces reveals we loved beer and blue cheese 2,700 ago

And other stories from the stranger side of life

Blue cheese
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Scientists lucky enough to study ancient samples of human excrement have found that humans enjoyed beer and blue cheese two millennia ago. The analysis found that workers at a salt mine in Austria were enjoying both products up to 2,700 years back. Frank Maixner, a microbiologist at the Eurac Research Institute in Italy, said he was surprised to learn salt miners so far back were advanced enough to “use fermentation intentionally”.

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