Milk and dairy products are a valuable, nutritious staple whose use is attested throughout Egyptian history, although the evidence may sometimes be limited as physical remains of cheese rarely survive (certainly far less often than animal bones or plants).
Many milking scenes provide evidence that the ancient Egyptians consumed and used cow milk, as well as milk from other animals. Cheese, cream, and perhaps a ghee- or butter-like product were most likely also produced although evidence is scant. Archaeologists have at least twice found what could be cheese products left as offerings in tombs. The earliest dates to 5200 years ago from a Dynasty 1 (ca. 3100–2910 BCE) tomb at Saqqara, where two jars with a solid mass inside were found to contain a chemical signature similar to cheese. Each of the jars has a different label: one says ‘sertof the north’, the other ‘sertof the south’, suggesting that the wordsertmay indicate cheese and that there were regional cheese varieties.
A more recent find was made in 2013/14 in the Saqqara tomb of a high-ranking official named Ptahmes, who served as mayor of Memphis (in modern-day Giza) under Kings Seti I and Ramses II (ca. 1290–1213 BCE). Found artefacts include a jar with a solidified mass covered with a piece of cloth. This is very similar to how cheese is stored in modern times. The mass was identified using methods such as DNA analysis which pointed to the use of both ovine and bovine milk, meaning the cheese was made of both types of milk mixed together. Experts think it would have been a type of hard cheese, making it the oldest example of solid cheese in the world.
