18 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

People knew how to make bread 14,400 years ago

Archaeological finds in Jordan’s Black Desert show that humans used stone ovens to bake bread 14,400 years ago.

Researchers have discovered the charred remains of a flatbread baked by hunter-gatherers 14,400 years ago. It is the oldest direct evidence of bread found to date, predating the advent of agriculture by at least 4,000 years.

Twenty-four bread-like discoveries were found in two fireplaces in a Natufian hunter-gatherer site known as Shubayqa 1.

The findings in 2018 suggest that bread production based on wild cereals may have encouraged hunter-gatherers to cultivate cereals, and thus contributed to the agricultural revolution in the Neolithic period.

Oldest bread

Who knows? Making fresh bread from opportunistically collected wild grains was really hard, but maybe the innovation smelled so good that the people invented agriculture.

Microscopic analysis of the fireplace finds showed the locals used about 95 different plants, mostly a bulrush that produces edible roots, shoots, and “nutlets”. They also found barley, oats, and wheat. However, whether or not these ancient people in the Levant, the Natufians, deliberately grew and nurtured the grains or opportunistically collected edible weeds is not clear.

The 24 remains analyzed in this study show that wild ancestors of domesticated cereals such as barley, einkorn, and oat had been ground, sieved, and kneaded prior to cooking. The remains are very similar to unleavened flatbreads identified at several Neolithic and Roman sites in Europe and Turkey. The charred remains in Jordan are the first direct evidence that bread production preceded agriculture.

One of the stone structures of the Shubayqa 1 site. The fireplace, where the bread was found, is in the middle. Click on the image to download it in full size. Photo: Alexis Pantos
One of the stone structures of the Shubayqa 1 site. The fireplace, where the bread was found, is in the middle. Click on the image to download it in full size. Photo: Alexis Pantos

In addition to bread, materials such as wild mustard seeds, some animal bones, and three different types of cheese were discovered in the region.

For a really ancient meal, then the ideal companion to the Oldest bread is the Oldest cheese.

The oldest residue of solid cheese is 3,200 years old, dating back to the 13th century BC. It was found in the tomb for Ptahmes, the mayor of the ancient city of Memphis in Egypt.

For the full article…

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1801071115

Related Articles

New Details on Mummification Techniques

28 February 2021

28 February 2021

In ancient Egypt, embalming was considered a sacred art, and knowledge of the process was restricted to a few. Egyptologists...

5,700-Year-old Ancient “Chewing Gum” Gives Information About People and Bacteria of the Past

4 April 2021

4 April 2021

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have successfully extracted the complete human genome from “chewing gum” thousands of years ago....

The secret of the mummy in the Crystal coffin found in a garage in San Francisco

30 March 2023

30 March 2023

Mysterious mummies are a symbol of ancient lost times, which we often associate with Egypt and other ancient civilizations. Therefore,...

Al-Ula, The Living Museum of Ancient Arab Civilizations

12 February 2021

12 February 2021

Al-Ula oasis is located in the lush Wadi Al-Qura, or “valley of villages”, about 110 km southwest of the modern...

World’s First Air Conditioners “Windcatchers”

23 May 2021

23 May 2021

The Persians invented Air Conditioning! Although it should be noted that this is 500 CE, this is the first time...

How Was the Life of Teenager in Ancient Times?

1 March 2021

1 March 2021

Youth is the same in every era. Not so hard to guess. How was your life as a teenager? You...

Michelangelo, the artistic giant, was actually rather short

3 September 2021

3 September 2021

The legendary Michelangelo Buonarroti left huge works behind as an artist. But Italian researchers found that the shoes of this...

Onna-Bugeisha, Female Samurais of Japan

16 May 2021

16 May 2021

Long before the Western World began to consider Samurai warriors male by nature, there were female samurai. These female samurai...

‘Dinosaur dance floor’ dating back 80 million years found in China

20 April 2021

20 April 2021

In China, researchers have found many dinosaur footprints in an area of 1,600 square meters described in the literature as...

New Dead Sea Scrolls in The Horror Cave

16 March 2021

16 March 2021

On Tuesday, Israeli archaeologists revealed dozens of recently discovered fragments of Bible text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were based...

The Most Important Works of Achaemenid Persian Metalwork “Oxus Treasure”

21 May 2021

21 May 2021

The Oxus Treasure is a collection of 180 precious metal objects unearthed on the north bank of the Oxus River...

300-Year-Old Sacred Mummified Mermaid From Japan’s Mystery Solved

20 February 2023

20 February 2023

A mummified mermaid has been worshiped in Japan for centuries because locals believe it has healing powers. However, upon closer...

Iconic Double Arch collapsed after an ancient pyramid in America, Tribes Link Fall With ‘Bad Omen’

10 August 2024

10 August 2024

Two ancient North American structures collapsed within just nine days of one another. The iconic Double Arch, also known as...

World’s Oldest Murder

14 February 2021

14 February 2021

Researchers found a mass grave in a cave in Spain, now known as Sima de los Huesos, or the Pit...

The Oldest Known Map of Europe, “Saint-Bélec Slab”

6 April 2021

6 April 2021

An ornate Bronze Age stone slab (Saint-Bélec slab) that was excavated in France in 1900 and forgotten about for over...