Homemade cheeses for 340 years under the Baltic Sea

Divers find the cheese jar that still emits a special scent after more than three centuries in the body of a warship located on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Sweden's Kronan ship remained motionless under the Baltic Sea for 340 years. The warship, armed with 126 guns, sank after a clash with the Dutch and Dutch forces in 1676, pulling about 800 dead, according to Atlas Obscura.

Cheese is preserved in a small black jar.(Photo: Lars Einarsson).

The ship was found in 1980. Later, divers discovered more than 20,000 artifacts, including jewelry, gold coins, and even traces of the crew's brain tissue died.

During the search that lasted for the first two weeks in July, the divers discovered a dairy product in a small black jar. Based on the smell of sour yeast emitted from the jar, researcher Lars Einarsson identified the product as cheese.

Einarsson and his colleagues announced the discovery on July 26 at the Kalmar County Museum in Sweden along with all objects salvaged underwater around Oland Island in the southeastern Baltic Sea.

Einarsson admitted that although the aroma of the cheese jar was very special, he did not intend to taste it. " It is very well preserved, but it has been under the seabed for 340 years ," Einarsson said.

Currently, the cheeses are being kept cold for further inspection to understand the composition and way of sailors living on ancient warships.