Ancient bread rises again as Turkiye unearths, then recreates 5,000-year-old loaf
ESKISEHIR, TURKIYE (AFP)In the early Bronze Age, a piece of bread was buried beneath the threshold of a newly built house in central Turkiye.Now, more than 5,000 years later, archaeologists have unearthed it, and helped a local bakery to recreate the recipe -- with customers lining up to buy it.Round and flat like a pancake, 12 centimetres in diameter, the bread was discovered during excavations at Kulluoba, a site near the central Anatolian city of Eskisehir."This is the oldest baked bread to have come to light during an excavation, and it has largely been able to preserve its shape," said Murat Turkteki, archaeologist and director of the excavation."Bread is a rare find during an excavation. Usually, you only find crumbs," he told AFP."But here, it was preserved because it had been burnt and buried," he said.The bread was charred and buried under the entrance of a dwelling built around 3,300 BC.A piece had been torn off, before the bread was burnt, then buried when the house was built.Unearthed in September 2024, the charred bread has been on display at the Eskisehir Archaeological Museum since Wednesday."We were very moved by this discovery. Talking to our excavation director, I wondered if we could reproduce this bread," said the city's mayor, Ayse Unluce.Analyses showed that the bread was made with coarsely ground emmer flour, an ancient variety of wheat, and lentil seeds, with the leaf of an as yet undetermined plant used as yeast.Ancient emmer seeds no longer exist in Turkiye.To get as close as possible to the original recipe, the municipality, after analysing the ancient bread, decided to use Kavilca wheat, a variety that is close to ancient emmer, as well as bulgur and lentils.
At the Halk Ekmek bakery, promoted by the municipality to offer low-cost bread, employees have been shaping 300 loaves of Kulluoba by hand every day.
"The combination of ancestral wheat flour, lentils and bulgur results in a rich, satiating, low-gluten, preservative-free bread," said Serap Guler, the bakery's manager.The first Kulluoba loaves, marketed as 300-gramme cakes that cost around $1.28, sold out within hours.
The rediscovery of the bread has sparked interest in the cultivation of ancient wheats better adapted to drought. The mayor wants to revive the cultivation of Kavilca wheat in the region, which is resistant to drought and disease.
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