3,000yo Egyptian cheese infected with deadly disease unearthed at ancient burial site

a reply to: toms54

Yes. It is in the NY Times also with that same photo.
Archaeologists Find 3,200-Year-Old Cheese in an Egyptian Tomb

Google News with many sources:
Go ogle News

a reply to: SailorJerry

Just like you're doing with me right now... My first comment was right on target with the thread. Seems you just completely ignored that tho.

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: toms54

Anyway, the caption says "Reuters." Since the wire service is credited, I assume they got both the story and picture from them.

That means the photo is from Reuters. The article is not a Reuters article.

Considering that the Google News link I posted contains about 40 sources, many with the same picture, most of them newspapers, all at the same time, I would say odds are good it came from some wire service.

originally posted by: toms54

originally posted by: Harte

originally posted by: toms54
a reply to: Byrd

I wouldn't say RT is as good a source as a respected scientific journal. For general news it's as good a source as CNN. It really depends on the topic for any source.

So you don't care that they showed the bottom of a column in their "cheese" pic?

Harte

I would have preferred to see an actual photo of the subject of the article. That said, it's not like I haven't seen this before in any number of popular articles. They don't have a suitable picture so they put up something they feel is representative. Or maybe some art.

The thing about this was the caption, "The 3,200-year-old cheese © University of Catania - University of Cairo / Reuters" To tell the truth, I don't know a column from cheese. I believed it. The only reason I believe you now is because I have seen you post about archeology so I believe you probably know the difference.

Dude, I only glanced at it until Byrd said it was a column. I thought it was a wheel of cheese at first glance.
I mean, why not? It's not as if it's unbelievable.

I only closely scrutinize stuff that seems unbelievable (and it's almost always not true.)

It does bother me though that they threw up a pic of the end of a column.

Harte

originally posted by: toms54
a reply to: Harte

I took a quick look for other sources. There is an abstract with no pictures at pubs.acs.org... Others news sources seem to have the exact same picture. Here's the one from The Boston Globe:

Now that’s some aged cheese: Researchers say world’s oldest known solid cheese found in an Egyptian tomb

That caption says, "University of Catania and Cairo University via The New York Times" so the photo must be in The New York Times also. Starting to look like it's legit.

I don't know, man.
Those two pics look different to me. LOL

Maybe the column is at the site near where the cheese was found.

Harte

originally posted by: toms54

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: toms54

Anyway, the caption says "Reuters." Since the wire service is credited, I assume they got both the story and picture from them.

That means the photo is from Reuters. The article is not a Reuters article.

Considering that the Google News link I posted contains about 40 sources, many with the same picture, most of them newspapers, all at the same time, I would say odds are good it came from some wire service.

Didn't look through all of them, but the ones I did look at all had different text.
So, probably the pic is from Reuters and the story is not.
Means that RT is not primarily at fault though.

Harte

a reply to: Harte

Ancient Origins gives their source as follows:

The original article titled, ‘ World’s Oldest Cheese Found in Egyptian Tomb ,’ was first published on Science Daily .

Source: American Chemical Society. "World's oldest cheese found in Egyptian tomb." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15 August 2018. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180815105307.htm

Science Daily gives their source as follows:

Story Source: Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

They both then quote the journal refence:

Enrico Greco, Ola El-Aguizy, Mona Fouad Ali, Salvatore Foti, Vincenzo Cunsolo, Rosaria Saletti, Enrico Ciliberto. Proteomic Analyses on an Ancient Egyptian Cheese and Biomolecular Evidence of Brucellosis. Analytical Chemistry, 2018; DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b02535

Neither the Ancient Origins or the Science Daily article contained that photo.

the specimen contained signs of a bacterium known to cause brucellosis, a deadly disease spread from animals to people via unpasteurised dairy.

Is it possible that ancient people were less susceptible to being infected with these bacteria?

Since they didn't know about Pasteurization and the germ theory of disease, it seems to me that this is something they would encounter frequently.

-dex

originally posted by: toms54
a reply to: Harte

Ancient Origins gives their source as follows:

The original article titled, ‘ World’s Oldest Cheese Found in Egyptian Tomb ,’ was first published on Science Daily .

Source: American Chemical Society. "World's oldest cheese found in Egyptian tomb." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15 August 2018. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180815105307.htm

Science Daily gives their source as follows:

Story Source: Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

They both then quote the journal refence:

Enrico Greco, Ola El-Aguizy, Mona Fouad Ali, Salvatore Foti, Vincenzo Cunsolo, Rosaria Saletti, Enrico Ciliberto. Proteomic Analyses on an Ancient Egyptian Cheese and Biomolecular Evidence of Brucellosis. Analytical Chemistry, 2018; DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b02535

Neither the Ancient Origins or the Science Daily article contained that photo.

That's the paper Byrd linked.

Harte

originally posted by: DexterRiley

the specimen contained signs of a bacterium known to cause brucellosis, a deadly disease spread from animals to people via unpasteurised dairy.

Is it possible that ancient people were less susceptible to being infected with these bacteria?

Since they didn't know about Pasteurization and the germ theory of disease, it seems to me that this is something they would encounter frequently.

-dex

No, though our immune systems have become stronger.

Remember that the AVERAGE life expectancy back then was around 35-40 years old. Many deaths, particularly in infancy, were caused by bacterial diseases. Our life expectancy took a huge jump upward after the discovery of penicillin and other modern anti-bacterial and anti-viral drugs.

Ancient Egyptians would have been astonished to see what we look like today, when dentistry and good diet and health care make us live longer AND look a lot younger at a comparable age.

It's the end/base of the jar for God's sake???

The shot everyone is seeing and has been pictured countless times in media around the world is the base of the jar.


JAR BASE

The other widely reported photo is of the Broken jar also, however it has been posted "upside down". I have corrected this and hopefully here you will see the broken vessel how it should look.

Correct side up


Incorrect way around

The granular "stuff" everybody keeps referring to as cheese, is not cheese folks. That was found in a sack/hessian type bag.The sandy colored granular stuff is sand and earth stuck to the base (or top, who knows....it's broken) of the Jar.

a reply to: CaptainBeno

Here's a picture of some pillars from the tomb
Four pillars from the Tomb of Ptahmes in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, the Netherlands. ( CC BY-SA 2.0 )

I don't know if these are from the inside or outside. They are stylistically different than round columns seen in some temples.

a reply to: Byrd

Thanks for answering my question.

Remember that the AVERAGE life expectancy back then was around 35-40 years

I'm always amazed when I consider the longevity of Ramesses the Great in the context of such a limited life expectancy. His 90 years is more than twice that of his contemporaries!

I believe that it is unlikely this longevity ratio scales linearly with modern day life expectancy. However, if it did, then Ramesses would live to be over 140 years old!

To what do you attribute his long lifespan?

-dex