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14,000 years ago, groups of hunters and gatherers from northeastern Jordan produced the first breads of humanity, 4,000 years before the invention of the 39, agriculture and the exploitation of domestic animals.
So far the origins of a staple food as symbolic and iconic as bread have been badociated with the appearance of early crops, an investigation of 24 remains of charred food recovered in the Shubayqa 1 deposit (Jordan), headed by the Spanish archaeobotany Amaia Arranz Otaegui of the University of Copenhagen, began to dismantle this idea
A discovery released today. by PNAS, to which they also participated experts from University College London (UCL) and the University of Cambridge
Arranz told Efe, how was the moment when and realized that among the remains of burnt food recovered from the excavations of Shubayqa 1, traces of the first loaves made by humans have been found.
"Until recently," he explained, "the archaeobotany had focused in the badysis of seeds and coals, unaware that in deposits there is another type of proof that should be studied, such as the "leftover food", which "provide the most direct information to know the diet of our ancestors".
Arranz admits that these discoveries "are not easy to recognize" in the excavations, because "are literally amorphous, ugly" and, "in the eyes of someone who "is not a specialist", may be confused with traces of manure, tubers or charred wood in very bad condition. "
" When I was in Jordan, I realized that I had materials that I could not clbadify as seeds, tubers, woods, "says the researcher, who does not say" I did not see them. did not begin to suspect the importance of what she had on hand until she decided to visit her colleague from UCL and co-authored the Investigation, Lara González. "When she saw the samples on a table," she describes, "Lara told me that they were very similar to the rest of the bread she had been researching in the Neolithic site of Catalhüyük (Turkey)."
"We almost fell to the ground," he recalls, "when we realized we had in front of us the oldest known bread remnants that were at least 4,000 years old. before having made his doctoral thesis, which, precisely, entitled "The origins of bread".
Interdisciplinary research developed on these food remains is now "the first empirical proof" known at the time of "the preparation of products resembling bread by hunter-gatherers belonging to the culture Natufienne (Middle East) . "
For this, they used some of the species later considered as the "founding crops" of agriculture, such as wild wheat ("Triticum boeoticum"), as well as tubers of the tiger nut family and papyrus (Ciperáceas).
"The remains suggest that they were probably producing flat bread, the so-called pita bread" says the researcher, but specifies that, although this product "currently constitutes a staple food ", probably in the Natufian culture was not" consumed regularly "and did not spread until the domestication of cereals and the emergence of the nat # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # 39; agriculture.
Arranz recalls that before his discovery of other writers had already evoked the possibility that certain foods like bread and beer arose before agriculture and its consumption and production could speed up the process of domestication
"But what was it before: the chicken or the egg?" Basque researcher, data provided by his discovery suggest that bread arrived before agriculture. EFE
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