14,500-year-old pita-like bread found on a prehistoric site in Jordan

"The presence of bread on a site of this age is exceptional," said Amaia Arranz-Otaegui, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen in archeobotany and senior author of the research, published in the journal [19459005ProceedingsoftheNationalAcademyofSciences.

Arranz-Otaegui says that she did not know if the building was a dwelling or had other purposes, perhaps ceremonial

By way of Sifting the sediments, she noticed samples that she could not place first; they were not seeds, nuts or charred wood. Instead, they looked exactly like the crumbs that accumulate at the bottom of a toaster.

Lara Gonzalez Carretero, a graduate student at University College London, uses Natufian technology to experimentally recreate flour and pulp. The pores in the samples mimicked the bubbles that appeared in the recreated bread.

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 comes from a site dating back 9100 years in Turkey

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

Tobias Richter, archaeologist and co-author of the study at the University of Copenhagen, pointed out "

" Bread provides us with an important source of carbohydrates and nutrients, including vitamins B, iron and magnesium, as well as fiber, "Richter said.

The site indicated that the Natufians had a diet based on meat and plants. 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 were able to make flour from the type of tubers used in the prehistoric recipe. "The taste of the tubers," says Arranz-Otaegui, "is quite gritty and salty, but it's a little sweet too."

Bread is an important food. Look at some of his many associations. We attach the word "bread" to the words "board", "basket", "crumb" and "winner".

Bread gave English speakers the word "lord" of the old English word "hlafweard", which can be translated into "loaf of bread" (or, if you prefer, "bread custodian").

Despite its few ingredients – flour, water and dry heat – the bread is very nutritious. Says Dolores Piperno, an archaeobotanist from the Smithsonian Institution who was not affiliated with this research.

Some ground and cooked foods like bread have become bad carbohydrates in modern food. books of advice, including "paleo" diets that pretend to mimic what our ancestors ate.

But hunter-gatherers would have welcomed the ability of bread to stimulate blood sugar. The people who built the ancient structure have struggled in a "hostile environment to get more energy from their food," said Ehud Weiss, an archaeobotanist from Bar-Ilan University in Israel who does not have a lot of energy. did not participate in the study.

Washington Post