Scientists have successfully baked a loaf of sourdough bread using yeast strains found in a 5000-year-old mummy.

The yeast strains were harvested from Ötzi teh Iceman, a corpse made famous due to its remarkable preservation. He was discovered in Alpine ice near the Italy-Austria border in 1991, and has been the subject of intense study since he was found.

According to The Guardian scientists have been studying the microorganisms preserved in and on Ötzi’s remains, and have announced plans to attempt to brew beer using the same yeast strains.

Microbiologist Mohamed Sarhan said in a statement posted to the Eurac Research website that, “eventually we obtained a completely normal dough that rose within 24 hours – basically just like normal yeast.”

“We made some really good dough with it,” he said.

“I’ve never baked bread before and it showed. So the result definitely had room for improvement. But as I said, these were our very first experiments.

“We want to pursue this further and involve specialised research teams from the food sector in the process. Bread is currently one of the obvious applications we’re considering; another is beer – we’ve already discussed this with experts from [German brewer] Weihenstephan.”

The newly discovered yeasts were isolated from samples taken from Ötzi’s skin, meltwater insid ethe mummy, and samples of stomach contents.

The yeasts harvest from Ötzi only live in cold conditions, so it’s believed they entered his body at some point after he died. Genetic analysis points to it being relatively soon after his death.