Wednesday - January 08, 2020

Yeah, but did they make pretzels?

At an archaeological site in northeastern Jordan, 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. The findings 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.

A team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen, University College London and University of Cambridge have analyzed charred food remains from a 14,400-year-old Natufian hunter-gatherer site - a site known as Shubayqa 1 - located in the Black Desert in northeastern Jordan. The results, which are now published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , provide the earliest empirical evidence for the production of bread.

How about that? It figures though; that’s the whole gatherer part of the hunter gatherer thing, right? No need to farm if the grains are growing everywhere around you.

But let’s get the story from PNAS. Because if the info comes straight from the PNAS, you know you can swallow it. Um, uh, right.

Remnants of oldest bread made 14,000 years ago found in Jordan

AMMAN — The discovery of the oldest remains of bread in the world adds to Jordan’s reputation as a key contributor to civilisation, pundits said on Tuesday. [ July 2018 ]

Research published in the US-based journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on July16 said that the finding is the earliest empirical evidence for the preparation of bread-like products by Natufian culture of hunter-gatherers, 4,000 years before the emergence of the agricultural way of life in the Neolithic Age.

The flatbread, likely unleavened and somewhat resembling pita bread, was fashioned from wild cereals such as barley, einkorn or oats, as well as tubers from an aquatic papyrus relative that had been ground into flour, according to the research.

The bread was found at “Shubayqa 1”, which is dated to the early and late Natufian culture (from 12,600 to 9,600 BC). It is located in northeast Jordan, in an area known as the Black Desert, according to the research.

General Director of the Department of Antiquities Monther Jamhawi stressed that the discovery entails the “surprise” that bread- making dates back to a much older era than previously known.

Jamhawi said that the place has little ruins, such as remains of walls and chipped basalt stones.

“It is not about the site’s components, but about the finding itself, which is a milestone in the drive of archaeological discoveries”, Jamhawi told The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

Omar Al Ghul, an associate professor at Yarmouk University, said that in terms of importance, nobody can belittle such a finding because it adds to the story of mankind’s understanding of his environment, creatures, resources and geography.

“What was discovered supports the significance of findings that provide information about the daily life of prehistoric civilisations”, Ghul said, adding that such sites are no less important than globally renowned major sites, such as Petra and the pyramids of Egypt. 

Posted by Drew458     on 01/08/2020 at 10:17 PM   
Filed Under: • Food •  
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