Ancient bread rises again as Turkey recreates 5,000-year-old loaf
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 (five inches) 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.
Ancient bread rises again as Turkey recreates 5,000-year-old loaf
Ancient bread rises again as Turkey recreates 5,000-year-old loaf
"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.
"It makes us think of a ritual of abundance," Turkteki said.
Ancient bread rises again as Turkey recreates 5,000-year-old loaf
Ancient bread rises again as Turkey recreates 5,000-year-old loaf
- 'Moved by this discovery' -
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 Turkey.
Ancient bread rises again as Turkey recreates 5,000-year-old loaf
Ancient bread rises again as Turkey recreates 5,000-year-old loaf
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 (meaning "People's Bread" in Turkish), 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 (11-ounce) cakes that cost 50 Turkish lira (around $1.28), sold out within hours.
"I rushed because I was afraid there wouldn't be any left. I'm curious about the taste of this ancient bread," said customer Suzan Kuru.
Ancient bread rises again as Turkey recreates 5,000-year-old loaf
Ancient bread rises again as Turkey recreates 5,000-year-old loaf
- Drought resistant -
In the absence of written traces, the civilisation of Kulluoba remains largely mysterious.
In the Bronze Age, the Hattians, an Anatolian people who preceded the Hittites, lived in the Eskisehir region.
"Kulluoba was a medium-sized urban agglomeration engaged in commercial activities, crafts, agriculture and mining. There was clearly a certain family and social order," said archaeologist Deniz Sari.
The rediscovery of the bread has sparked interest in the cultivation of ancient wheats better adapted to drought.
Once rich in water sources, the province of Eskisehir is today suffering from drought.
Ancient bread rises again as Turkey recreates 5,000-year-old loaf
Ancient bread rises again as Turkey recreates 5,000-year-old loaf
"We're facing a climate crisis, but we're still growing corn and sunflowers, which require a lot of water," said Unluce, the local mayor.
"Our ancestors are teaching us a lesson. Like them, we should be moving towards less thirsty crops," she added.
The mayor wants to revive the cultivation of Kavilca wheat in the region, which is resistant to drought and disease.
"We need strong policies on this subject. Cultivating ancient wheat will be a symbolic step in this direction," she said.
"These lands have preserved this bread for 5,000 years and given us this gift. We have a duty to protect this heritage and pass it on." —AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Observer
01-08-2025
- Observer
Landslide-prone Nepal tests AI-powered warning system
Every morning, Nepali primary school teacher Bina Tamang steps outside her home and checks the rain gauge, part of an early warning system in one of the world's most landslide-prone regions. Tamang contributes to an AI-powered early warning system that uses rainfall and ground movement data, local observations and satellite imagery to predict landslides up to weeks in advance, according to its developers at the University of Melbourne. From her home in Kimtang village in the hills of northwest Nepal, 29-year-old Tamang sends photos of the water level to experts in the capital Kathmandu, a five-hour drive to the south. "Our village is located in difficult terrain and landslides are frequent here, like many villages in Nepal", Tamang said. Every year during the monsoon season, floods and landslides wreak havoc across South Asia, killing hundreds of people. Nepal is especially vulnerable due to unstable geology, shifting rainfall patterns and poorly planned development. A damaged building, uprooted following heavy rains at a landslide-affected village in Lalitpur district on the outskirts of Kathmandu. — AFP As a mountainous country, it is already "highly prone" to landslides, said Rajendra Sharma, an early warning expert at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. "And climate change is fuelling them further. Shifting rainfall patterns, rain instead of snowfall in high altitudes and even increase in wildfires are triggering soil erosion", Sharma said. Landslides killed more than 300 people last year and were responsible for 70 per cent of monsoon-linked deaths, government data shows. Tamang knows the risks first hand. When she was just five years old, her family and dozens of others relocated after soil erosion threatened their village homes. They moved about a kilometre uphill, but a strong 2015 earthquake left the area even more unstable, prompting many families to flee again. "The villagers here have lived in fear", Tamang said. "But I am hopeful that this new early warning system will help save lives". The landslide forecasting platform was developed by Australian professor Antoinette Tordesillas with partners in Nepal, Britain and Italy. Its name, SAFE-RISCCS, is an acronym of a complex title — Spatiotemporal Analytics, Forecasting and Estimation of Risks from Climate Change Systems. "This is a low-cost but high-impact solution, one that's both scientifically informed and locally owned", Tordesillas said. Prof Basanta Adhikari from Nepal's Tribhuvan University, who is involved in the project, said that similar systems were already in use in several other countries, including the US and China. "We are monitoring landslide-prone areas using the same principles that have been applied abroad, adapted to Nepal's terrain", he said. "If the system performs well during this monsoon season, we can be confident that it will work in Nepal as well, despite the country's complex Himalayan terrain". In Nepal, it is being piloted in two high-risk areas: Kimtang in Nuwakot district and Jyotinagar in Dhading district. Tamang's data is handled by technical advisers like Sanjaya Devkota, who compares it against a threshold that might indicate a landslide. Rajendra Sharma, Disaster Risk Manager, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) "We are still in a preliminary stage, but once we have a long dataset, the AI component will automatically generate a graphical view and alert us based on the rainfall forecast", Devkota said. "Then we report to the community, that's our plan". The experts have been collecting data for two months, but will need a data set spanning a year or two for proper forecasting, he added. Eventually, the system will deliver a continuously updated landslide risk map, helping decision makers and residents take preventive actions and make evacuation plans. The system "need not be difficult or resource-intensive, especially when it builds on the community's deep local knowledge and active involvement", Tordesillas said. — AFP
Observer
30-07-2025
- Observer
US and India launch powerful Earth-monitoring satellite
WASHINGTON: A formidable new radar satellite jointly developed by the United States and India launched on Wednesday, designed to track subtle changes in Earth's land and ice surfaces and help predict both natural and human-caused hazards. Dubbed NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), the pickup truck-sized spacecraft blasted off around 5:40 pm from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India's southeastern coast, riding an ISRO Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket. Livestream of the event showed excited schoolchildren brought to watch the launch and mission teams erupting in cheers and hugging. Highly anticipated by scientists, the mission has also been hailed as a milestone in growing US-India cooperation between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 'Our planet surface undergoes constant and meaningful change,' Karen St Germain, director of NASA's Earth Science division, told reporters ahead of launch. 'Some change happens slowly. Some happens abruptly. Some changes are large, while some are subtle.' By picking up on tiny changes in the vertical movement of the Earth's surface — as little as one centimeter — scientists will be able to detect the precursors for natural and human caused disasters, from earthquakes, landsides and volcanoes to aging infrastructure like dams and bridges. 'We'll see land substance and swelling, movement, deformation and melting of mountain glaciers and ice sheets covering both Greenland and Antarctica, and of course, we'll see wildfires,' added St Germain, calling NISAR 'the most sophisticated radar we've ever built.' India in particular is interested in studying its coastal and nearby ocean areas by tracking yearly changes in the shape of the sea floor near river deltas and how shorelines are growing or shrinking. Data will also be used to help guide agricultural policy by mapping crop growth, tracking plant health, and monitoring soil moisture. Equipped with a 12-meter dish that will unfold in space, NISAR will record nearly all of Earth's land and ice twice every 12 days from an altitude of 747 kilometers. As it orbits, the satellite will continuously transmit microwaves and receive echoes from the surface. Because the spacecraft is moving, the returning signals are distorted, but computer processing will reassemble them to produce detailed, high-resolution images. Achieving similar results with traditional radar would require an impractically large 12-mile-wide dish. NISAR will operate on two radar frequencies: L-band and S-band. The L-band is ideal for sensing taller vegetation like trees, while the S-band enables more accurate readings of shorter plants such as bushes and shrubs. — AFP
Observer
27-07-2025
- Observer
‘Project Hail Mary' sends Ryan Gosling and Comic-Con, into outer space
Comic-Con attendees got their first glimpse on Saturday at the new sci-fi space thriller 'Project Hail Mary', starring Ryan Gosling, ahead of its arrival in US theatres in March 2026. Gosling was joined on a convention panel by directing duo Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, as well as screenwriter Drew Goddard and book author Andy Weir — whose previous novel 'The Martian' was also turned into an Oscar-nominated film starring Matt Damon. Based on Weir's 2021 book of the same title, 'Project Hail Mary' follows astronaut Ryland Grace (Gosling), a science teacher waking up to learn he was recruited for a space mission to save Earth from an existential solar threat. Gosling described his character as 'a scared guy who has to do something impossible'. 'I knew it would be brilliant, because it's Andy [Weir]', Gosling told the crowd. 'It took me places I've never been. It showed me things I had never seen. It was as heartbreaking as it was funny and I was... not just blown away, but also overwhelmed'. Weir for his part said it was 'so cool' to see his book come to life and complimented Gosling for giving 'many layers to this character I made up'. Lord and Miller, the Oscar-winning duo behind the 'Spider-Verse' Spider-Man animated films, talked about the challenges of shooting a 'crazy ambitious' film which takes place inside a spaceship for the most part. 'We had to build an entire spaceship in two modes of gravity and then we built this entire massive tunnel at scale', Miller said. 'This is insane, to build a tunnel that was like 100 feet (30 metres) long, filled up an entire stage'. The event also showcased various clips from the film, receiving a positive response from fans, who noted the bond formed between Gosling's character and an alien named Rocky. 'The relationship between these two characters is the heart of the movie', Miller said. 'I loved it', attendee April Rodriguez, who also read the book, gushed about the film. 'I just never, like, envisioned it that way. So that was pretty cool'. — AFP
