２７００年前にブルーチーズとビールを堪能　アルプスの岩塩坑の排せつ物分析

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】チーズとビールの相性の良さはよく知られているが、オーストリアの岩塩坑で働いていた労働者は早ければ２７００年前には、ブルーチーズとビールを味わっていたとする研究論文が１３日、米科学誌カレント・バイオロジーで発表された。研究チームは、欧州でチーズが熟成されていた最古の証拠と、ビールが消費されていたことを分子レベルで示す初の証拠だとしている。（写真はオーストリア・ハルシュタットの岩塩坑で採取された人の排せつ物。ウィーン自然史博物館提供）
　研究チームは、オーストリア・アルプスに位置する世界最古の岩塩坑・ハルシュタットで見つかった坑員たちの排せつ物のサンプルを分析した。
　ハルシュタットは３０００年以上前から塩が生産されてきた町で、国連教育科学文化機関（ユネスコ）の世界遺産に登録されている。
　岩塩坑は塩分濃度が高く、気温が８度前後で一定に保たれているため、排せつ物の保存状態が良かった。
　研究チームは４種類の排せつ物の標本、青銅器時代のもの一つ、鉄器時代のもの二つ、１８世紀のもの一つを分析した。その結果、このうちの一つ、約２７００年前の排せつ物には２種類の菌、ペニシリウム・ロックフォルティとサッカロミケス・セレビシエが含まれていた。
　「ハルシュタットの坑員たちは、微生物を利用して意図的に食品の発酵技術を用いていたと思われる。この微生物は、今も食品産業で使われている」と論文の主執筆者で、イタリア・ボルツァーノにあるユーラック研究所の微生物学者、フランク・マイクスナー氏は述べている。
　研究チームは、今回の発見は、欧州でチーズが熟成されていたことを示す最古の証拠だとしている。
　また、アルコールの消費を示す古い文献や考古学的な証拠はあるが、今回調べた排せつ物からは、当時の欧州でビールが消費されていたことを示す分子レベルでの証拠が初めて見つかった。
　マイクスナー氏は、２０００年以上も前に岩塩坑の労働者たちが「意図的に発酵」を起こすほど高度な技術を持っていたことに驚いたと述べている。
　オーストリアのウィーン自然史博物館のカースティン・コバリック氏は、「先史時代の調理方法が洗練されていただけではなく、複雑な加工食品や発酵技術が人類の食の歴史の初期に重要な役割を果たしていたことが明らかになっている」と指摘している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/10/15-17:06）

It's no secret that beer and cheese go hand in hand -- but a new study reveals how deep their roots run in Europe, where workers at a salt mine in Austria were gorging on both up to 2,700 years ago.
Scientists made the discovery by analyzing samples of human excrement found at the heart of the Hallstatt mine in the Austrian Alps. The study was published in the journal Current Biology on Wednesday.
Frank Maixner, a microbiologist at the Eurac Research Institute in Bolzano, Italy, who was the lead author of the report, said he was surprised to learn that salt miners more than two millennia ago were advanced enough to use fermentation intentionally.
This is very sophisticated in my opinion, Maixner told AFP. This is something I did not expect at that time.
The finding was the earliest evidence to date of cheese ripening in Europe, according to researchers.
And while alcohol consumption is certainly well documented in older writings and archaeological evidence, the salt miners' feces contained the first molecular evidence of beer consumption on the continent at that time.
It is becoming increasingly clear that not only were prehistoric culinary practices sophisticated, but also that complex processed foodstuffs as well as the technique of fermentation have held a prominent role in our early food history, said Kerstin Kowarik of the Museum of Natural History Vienna.
- 'A very particular place' -
The town of Hallstatt, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been used for salt production for more than 3,000 years.
The community is a very particular place, it's located in the Alps, in the middle of nowhere, he explained. The whole community worked and lived from this mine.
The miners spent their entire days there, working, eating and going to the bathroom in the mine.
It is thanks to the constant temperature of around 8C (46F) and the high concentration of salt at the mine that the miners' feces were preserved particularly well.
Researchers analyzed four samples: one dating back to the Bronze Age, two from the Iron Age and one from the 18th century.
One of them, about 2,700 years old, was found to contain two fungi, Penicillium roqueforti and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Both are known today for their use in food making.
The Hallstatt miners seem to have intentionally applied food fermentation technologies with microorganisms which are still nowadays used in the food industry, Maixner said.
- A balanced diet -
The researchers also studied the miners' diet, which consisted mainly of cereals, some fruit, and beans and meats as the source of protein.
The diet was exactly what these miners needed, in my opinion, Maixner said. It's clearly balanced and you have all major components you need.
The main difference with today's menus is the degree of food processing, which was very low at the time. The Bronze and Iron Age miners used whole grains, suggesting the consumption of some kind of porridge. For the 18th-century miners, the grains appeared ground, indicating they ate bread or cookies.
One of the study's other findings was the composition of the miners' microbiota, or the set of bacteria present in their bodies.
In the four samples studied, the microbiota were very similar to that of modern non-Western populations, which tend to have a more traditional lifestyle.
This suggests a recent shift in the microbiota of industrialized humans, probably due to modern lifestyle, diet, or medical advances, the study said.
However, microbiota are often linked to different modern diseases, Maixner said. According to him, determining when exactly this change occurred could help scientists understand what caused it.