Scientists make sourdough bread using yeast found in 5,000-year-old mummy

A researcher examines the hand of the naturally mummified remains of Ötzi, a man whose body was preserved in glacial ice for more than 5,300 years. Photograph: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology/Eurac Research/Marion Lafogler/Reuters

Scientists have baked a sourdough loaf of bread using yeast strains harvested from a 5,000-year-old mummy and now plan to see if they can use them to brew beer too.

The yeast came from Ötzi the Iceman, a famous corpse remarkably preserved by being frozen in Alpine ice near the Italy-Austria border until he was discovered in 1991. Ötzi has been the subject of intense study since he was found and has shed much light on pre-historic European people and their way of life.