The oldest bread in the world found on the prehistoric site in Jordan

WASHINGTON – Burnt remains of bread baked about 14,500 years ago in a stone fireplace from a site in northeastern Jordan sparked a delightful surprise: people started to make bread, a vital staple. No matter how you cut it out, the detailed discovery on Monday shows that hunter-gatherers in the eastern Mediterranean have gone through the cultural stage of bread making much earlier than expected, more than 4,000 years before plant cultivation takes root

. The flatbread, presumably unleavened and somewhat like pita bread, has been fashioned from wild cereals such as barley, einkorn or oats, as well as from tubers. a parent of aquatic papyrus that had been ground into flour

. the Natufians, who had begun to adopt a sedentary lifestyle rather than nomadic, and were found in an archaeological site of the Black Desert

"The presence of bread on a site of thi Age is exceptional", said Amaia Arranz-Otaegui, postdoctoral researcher in Archaeobotany at the University of Copenhagen and senior author of the research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

Arranz-Otaegui stated that until now, the origins of bread had been associated with the first agricultural societies that grew cereals and legumes. The oldest evidence of bread came from a site dating back to 9100 years ago in Turkey.

"We must now assess whether there is a relationship between bread production and the origins of agriculture," Arranz-Otaegui said. "It is possible that bread has encouraged people to engage in culture and agriculture if it becomes a desirable or highly desirable food."

Tobias Richter, archaeologist and co-author of the University of Copenhagen study, pointed out the nutritional implications of adding bread to the diet. "Bread provides us with a significant source of carbohydrates and nutrients, including B vitamins, iron and magnesium, and fiber," Richter said

. The round chimneys, made of flat basalt stones and measuring about a meter in diameter, were located in the middle of the huts.

Arranz-Otaegui said that the researchers began trying to replicate the bread, and managed to make flour from the type of tubers used in the prehistoric recipe. But that could have been an acquired taste.

"Taste of tubers," says Arranz-Otaegui, "is quite gritty and salty.But it is also a little sweet." – Reuters