By Brad Dison
During the holidays, we spend a lot of time and effort on what we eat. One mandatory item on most of our tables is bread, one of the oldest prepared foods. In 2018, scientists discovered the earliest known evidence of bread-making, including a bread oven and 24 charred bread crumbs, from a 14,400-year-old dig site in the Black Desert in Jordan. The stone age bakers ground flour from wild wheat and barley, mixed it with the pulverized roots of plants, added water, and then cooked it. This was before the advent of farming, when people were hunter-gatherers. The bread they made looked similar to modern flatbread because it contained no rising agent such as yeast and tasted like today’s multi-grain bread. Professor Dorian Fuller of University College London said, “this is the earliest evidence we have for what we could really call a cuisine, in that it’s a mixed food product.” Dr. Amaia Arranz-Optaegui of the University of Copenhagen, who discovered the remains of the bread, said “bread is a powerful link between our past and present food cultures. It connects us with our prehistoric ancestors.”
Fluffy loaves of bread that look like the bread most of us eat today came several thousands of years later. In 2017, archaeobotanist Lara González Carretero studied the remains of unbaked, leavened bread found at the ancient Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in southern Turkey. They dated back to 6600 BCE, making it the oldest evidence of leavened bread found to date.
Through the ages, people bartered for bread rather than bake it themselves. The barter system had a major disadvantage in that the two parties involved each had to want what the other party was offering to trade. Sometime around 640 BCE, people in China began to mint the oldest known standardized forms of metal coinage. As money became the more common medium of exchange, bakers sold their bread. The problem was that money was standardized but bread was anything but standardized. It came in a variety of sizes, qualities, and prices. Unscrupulous bakers took advantage of the situation and sold poor-quality bread for premium prices. In 1266, the Parliament of the United Kingdom created the “Assize of Bread and Ale” to regulate the production and sale of bread and ale. Under this law, the weight and quality of a loaves of bread were specified and the price was set according to the fluctuating price of wheat. Bakers whose bread was not to up the standards set forth by the law were subject to the wrath of King Henry III. This law slowly began to weed out the dishonest bakers, but honest bakers became worried that a simple mistake could get them into trouble. Depending on the seriousness of the offense, they could be fined, placed in a pillory (where the community was expected to throw things at them), be jailed, or have their trade taken away. Honesty was the best policy. They were able to make bread that was good quality and sold it according to the law, but getting a standardized weight for each loaf was difficult. To ensure that they were well within the weight limit prescribed by law, bakers began adding a bonus loaf, what they called the “vantage loaf,” when someone bought 12 loaves of bread. That is why when visiting a bakery, you sometimes get a baker’s dozen.
Sources:
1. Helen Briggs, “Prehistoric bake-off: Scientists discover oldest evidence of bread,” July 17, 2018, BBC.com, Accessed November 30, 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44846874.
2. Sarah Bond, “Discovery of 8,600-Year-Old Bread Gives Rise to Half-Baked Claims,” Hyperallergic.com, March 18, 2024, accessed November 30, 2025, https://hyperallergic.com/discovery-of-8600-year-old-bread-gives-rise-to-half-baked-claims/.
3. “Oldest Fermented Bread,” Gunness World Records, accessed November 30, 2025, https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/768791-oldest-fermented-bread.
4. Andrew Beattie, “Evolution of Money: From Barter Systems to Bitcoin,” Investopedia, November 25, 2025, accessed November 30, 2025, https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/roots_of_money.asp.
5. “Why 13? The Tale of a Baker’s Dozen,” Freshly Baked, accessed November 30, 2025, https://www.freshly-baked.co.uk/2015/02/why-13-tale-of-bakers-dozen.html.