Posted on 06/06/2025 1:10:34 PM PDT by Red Badger
A piece of bread baked millennia ago was recently unearthed in Turkey — and now a local bakery is recreating it.
Scientists recently uncovered an ancient bread recipe in Turkey, and a local bakery has successfully brought it back to life. The bread, dating back roughly 5,000 years, was discovered as a piece of charred loaf buried beneath the threshold of a house in Eskisehir, a city in central Turkey.
Archaeologists found this remarkable artifact in September 2024 during an excavation at Kulluoba Hoyuk, a Bronze Age settlement that has been studied for decades.
An Ancient Discovery Preserved Through Millennia
The piece of bread is the oldest baked bread ever found in an archaeological dig and has retained much of its original shape. Murat Turkteki, the archaeologist leading the excavation, described it as “the oldest baked bread to have come to light during an excavation, and it has largely preserved its shape.” The bread is flat and disc-shaped, measuring about 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) in diameter.
According to Gizmodo, scientific analysis revealed the bread was made from coarsely ground emmer flour, an ancient variety of wheat once widely cultivated but now rare. Alongside emmer, lentil seeds were mixed in, adding texture and nutritional value. The bread also contained a plant leaf that acted as a natural leavening agent, causing the dough to rise during baking. This combination shows early ingenuity in using available resources for food preparation.
Such findings provide important clues about ancient diets, agricultural practices, and how early humans adapted to their environment. Discoveries like this help rewrite the history of food, showing that complex baking existed long before modern techniques were developed.
Recreating A Lost Recipe For Modern Tastes
Inspired by the archaeological find, local officials reached out to Halk Ekmek, a bakery in Eskisehir, to see if the recipe could be recreated for modern palates. Since ancient emmer seeds are no longer available in Turkey, the bakers substituted Kavilca wheat—a closely related and locally grown variety. To mimic the original recipe more closely, bulgur and lentils were added as well.
The bakery’s efforts quickly paid off. The first batch of “Kulluoba bread” sold out within hours, signaling a strong local appetite for this taste of history. Since then, the bakery has been producing around 300 loaves daily to keep up with demand.
The bread is priced affordably, at just 50 Turkish lira (about $1.30), thanks to municipal subsidies aimed at promoting cultural heritage and sustainable food traditions.
5,000-year-old bread rises again.
In the early Bronze Age, a piece of bread was buried beneath the threshold of a house in what is today central Turkey. Now, more than 5,000 years later, archaeologists have unearthed it, and helped a local bakery to recreate the recipe — with… pic.twitter.com/eJhym0WvEF
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 28, 2025
A Lesson From Ancestors In Sustainable Farming
Kavilca wheat, used as a substitute for ancient emmer, is known for its resistance to drought and disease. This characteristic is particularly relevant today as many modern crops in Turkey, such as corn and sunflowers, require large amounts of water and are vulnerable to environmental stress.
Eskisehir’s mayor, Ayse Unluce, pointed out the broader significance of this discovery, saying, “Our ancestors are teaching us a lesson. Like them, we should be moving toward less thirsty crops.” With climate change increasing the frequency of droughts, adopting crops like Kavilca wheat could reduce water consumption and ensure food security in vulnerable regions.
Since March 28, the bread has been displayed at the Eskişehir Archaeological Museum, attracting visitors who want to witness this rare piece of history firsthand.
Good thinking. I’d give it a try and if good, buy more.
The origins of man-made global warming. I doubt they were using clean energy while baking. In fact, they’re probably not using clean energy there today either.
And this is surprising for what reason?
Yes...that is the most important aspect of this and I’d like to know what it is or if they’re just speculating. I’ve never heard of anything like this.
It looks tastier when fresh
When archaeologists peered beneath the threshold of a 5,300-year-old house at Küllüoba Höyük, they encountered a surprising object -- a small loaf of Bronze Age bread that had been buried and preserved for thousands of years, Hürriyet Daily News reports. The flatbread, which measures, five inches wide and one inch thick, is among the earliest known baked items ever discovered. Analysis determined that it was made from a coarsely ground flour made of emmer, a type of ancient wheat, and lentils. The ancient bakers also seemingly used the leaves of an unknown plant as a leavening agent. The loaf may have been intentionally deposited in a newly built house as part of a ritual to invoke prosperity and plenty. "It's clear from the evidence that the bread was both fermented and baked quickly, and then burned," said archaeologist Murat Türkteki. "If it hadn't been charred, it may not have survived to this day." Archaeologists are not certain exactly who lived in Küllüoba Höyük at the time the bread was baked, but during the Bronze Age the area was inhabited by the Hattians, an Anatolian people who preceded the Hittites. A modern bakery has already begun to reproduce and sell breads based on the ancient recipe. To read more about the history of bread, go to "The First Bakers," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2018.
Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality
Thanks Red Badger. I'd had a file on this for a few days, finished formatting it maybe a half hour ago, along with ten or so others, and was going to post some of them tomorrow, because I'd decided to, uh, loaf the rest of the day, but since you were nice enough to post it...
Yeah, no.
My wife made floor bread last night.
Any product that is shelf stable over 5K years might beat Twinkie.
Are they sure it’s not coprolite?
Agreed....they added bulgur .(Parboiled wheat)...from what kind of wheat?? Why couldn’t they get the Emmer wheat from other sources? They know that a leaf was used to act as a leavening agent....they knew how it worked...but they don’t know what it is? Make no kind’o sense. Not a replica bread.
Bread so bad they threw it back into the fire rather than finish eating it?
Final step in the recipe - cook in a 500 degree oven 12 hours?
Thanks, I’ll stick with sourdough.
Is be thrilled to have a thick slice of salt rising bread toast slathered with butter. The Amish in Western NYS make it. The last time we had it it wasn’t good and we asked what changed.
We were told the NYS tyrants believed the Annual method was bad and forced them to change it. Now it’s just blah.
It’s really difficult to make, sadly.
What is floor bread?.........
What is floor bread?.........
Looks like a loaf my wife made
“Looks like fried Salmon Croquettes.”
Or tunafish popovers (from an old Jean Arthur movie).
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