“If you tell anyone you have yeast [from a frozen mummy], they immediately ask: can we use it for bread? We made some really good dough with it.” This is probably the weirdest archaeological story of the year (so far).
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Chapters
1:30 Who was Ötzi?
4:07 The new discovery
6:51 An Egyptian starter
9:36 Mummy Mania
14:23 So… Why does any of this matter?
Bibliography
Original article: Sarhan et al. 2026. “The Iceman’s microbiome: unveiling millennia of microbial diversity and continuity.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40168-026-02417-6
Press release: Baumgartner 2026. “Ötzi and his microbiome.” https://www.eurac.edu/en/magazine/otzi-and-his-microbiome-a-detailed-picture-of-the-microbial-community-associated-with-otzi
On Mummy-phagia: Harmes 2022. “Why did people start eating Egyptian mummies? The weird and wild ways mummy fever swept through Europe.” https://theconversation.com/why-did-people-start-eating-egyptian-mummies-the-weird-and-wild-ways-mummy-fever-swept-through-europe-177551
Price 2023. “Interpreting the ‘Two Brothers’ at Manchester Museum: Science, Knowledge and Display.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11759-023-09475-4
Castleton 2021. “Mummia – How Ground Egyptian Mummy Cured All Ailments & Painted Masterpieces.” https://www.davidcastleton.net/mummia-ancient-egyptian-mummies-medicine-mummy-brown-paint/
Daley 2019. “This Bread Was Made Using 4,500-Year-Old Egyptian Yeast.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bread-was-made-using-4500-year-old-egyptian-yeast-180972842/
31 Comments
Why does the yeast I buy in the supermarket stop working?
I don't think you could pay me to eat bread made from the yeast in a frozen mummy
You think they already ate a mummy that people have been looking for it but won't admit it.
Yeah, baking bread from yeast found with a mummy is not the weirdest thing Europeans have ever done with mummies.
There’s probably still people eating ground up mummy somewhere
How would you not?!
But….why???????
I don’t think I would eat bread made from the yeast of a 5k year old dead guy. I’m not that guy though.
Im down for some freaking mummy beer.
Anyone remember Forbidden Grilled Cheese? The Egyptian bread, cheese from an Egyptian tomb, Irish bog butter, and fossilized tomatoes??
Milo looks like he's got some good yeast in him based on his tattoos
Mummia was only one part of a widespread tradition of medicinal cannibalism practiced by Medieval and Early Modern Europeans. Blood and body parts of executed criminals were frequently consumed for 'medicinal' purposes. People believed in a version of 'you are what you eat' and reasoned that eating parts of people who were otherwise healthy could heal diseases or make you stronger. The most famous victims were Johan De Witt, Prime Minister of the Netherlands and his brother Cornelis, who were lynched and partially eaten by a royalist mob in 1672. It was still happening as late as the 19th century. Hans Christian Andersen described seeing a sickly child being made to drink blood collected from an executed man was young. The great historical irony is that this was at the same time as Europeans were denigrating people in the lands they were colonising as 'cannibals', often on an entirely fictional basis.
Just think how many digs they could fund if they released the beer commercially
Thanks flint for your efforts at educating people about real science. I hope your recovery is continuing well
I love beer made from wild yeasts, like is still made in Belgium to this day. Lambic beer for example and Geuze is a blend made from new and aged Lambic. There's nothing like it. Our 'spontaneous yeasted' beer is the oldest technique still commercially available. Going strong proven since medieval times.
So experimenting with yeast is in our culture. Bring it on!
I would eat at udzi's bake and brew… with all the proceeds going to archeological studies of course.
Europeans practicing cannibalism again, i see
so they actually made some yummy bread. this story is hilarious, im gonna have a beer with this one.
ps: so glad youre doing great healthwise, thx for all the good work and uploads.
White people are never again allowed to put down any brown person's Culture by saying that their ancestors were cannibals. Y'all set up here and took ground up dead people as medicine.
This didn't show up in my feed until you made your followup post
My takeaway is that even under carefully controlled cold storage conditions, Otzi is still being slowly consumed by cold-adapted microbes.
I'm actually curious about how in the ancient pottery samples they were able to make sure that there wasn't contamination by more recent organisms. That might be worth exploring/explaining in a more in-depth video.
Change the title to "bread made from mummies… literally". Or something like that. Catchier title and the holiday weekend being over hopefully get it picked up by the algorithm a bit better.
This is just crazy.
Re: mummy brown, I do love the one guy who was so horrified when he realized his paint had been a person that he promptly gave it a funeral in the garden.
Wait, what??? This reality is so surreal.
I don't think yeast is ever viral…😉
Abby Cox!!!!!
I like mommies
Iceman!
Ah-aa-ahhh!
Fighter of the Nightman
Ah-aa-ahhh!
Champion of the ice
You're a master of karate and friendship for everyone.
Flint is exactly the dude I want to hear about this from