Archeologists in Turkey believe they have discovered the world’s oldest bread. A “spongy” palm-sized residue was found alongside an oven, as well as wheat, barley and pea seeds.
Unearthed in an area called “Mekan 66” on the archeological site of Çatalhöyük, in the southern province of Konya, the analysis puts the organic residue at 8,600 years old.
The oven was largely destroyed, but was found beside adjoining mudbrick houses, according to Turkey’s Necmettin Erbakan University Science and Technology Research and Application Center (BİTAM).
They believe that the residue dates back to 6600 BC and, as such, is the oldest bread discovered to date. Archeologist Ali Umut Türkcan, head of the Excavation Delegation and an associate professor at Anadolu University in Turkey, said: “It is a smaller version of a loaf of bread. It has a finger pressed in the center, it has not been baked, but it has been fermented and has survived to the present day with the starches inside. There is no similar example of something like this to date,” he said.
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Çatalhöyük is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was home to approximately 8,000 people during the Neolithic period, between 10,000 BC to 2,000 BC. According to BİTAM, it is one of the first places where humans are believed to have urbanized.
The discovery of starch grains eliminated any suspicions the archaeologists initially had, according to biologist Salih Kavak, a lecturer at Gaziantep University in Turkey. They also found indicators of fermentation, with flour and water mixed together. Although uncooked, the thin layer of clay that covered the oven structure helped to preserve the organic matter for thousands of years.
“It is an exciting discovery for Turkey and the world,” Kavak said.
