History of bread

{{See also|Epipalaeolithic Near East}}

Charred crumbs of "unleavened flat bread-like products" made by Natufian hunter-gatherers, likely from wild wheat, wild barley and tubers between 11,600 and 14,600 years ago have been found at the archaeological site of Shubayqa 1 in the Black Desert in Jordan. These remains predate the earliest-known making of bread from cultivated wheat by thousands of years.{{cite news |last1=Briggs |first1=Helen |title=Prehistoric bake-off: Recipe for oldest bread revealed |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44846874 |publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=17 July 2018 |date=17 July 2018|work=BBC News }}{{cite journal | last1=Arranz-Otaegui | first1=Amaia | last2=Gonzalez Carretero | first2=Lara | last3=Ramsey | first3=Monica N. | last4=Fuller | first4=Dorian Q. | last5=Richter | first5=Tobias | title=Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan | journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume=115 | issue=31 | pages=7925–7930 | date=16 July 2018 | doi=10.1073/pnas.1801071115 | pmid=30012614 | pmc=6077754 | bibcode=2018PNAS..115.7925A | doi-access=free }} Grinding stones recently unearthed in Australia have been dated to 60,000 years ago and are currently the earliest evidence of seed processing outside of Africa.{{Cite journal |last1=Hayes |first1=Elspeth H. |last2=Fullagar |first2=Richard |last3=Field |first3=Judith H. |last4=Coster |first4=Adelle C. F. |last5=Matheson |first5=Carney |last6=Nango |first6=May |last7=Djandjomerr |first7=Djaykuk |last8=Marwick |first8=Ben |last9=Wallis |first9=Lynley A. |last10=Smith |first10=Mike A. |last11=Clarkson |first11=Chris |date=2022-07-11 |title=65,000-years of continuous grinding stone use at Madjedbebe, Northern Australia |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=11747 |doi=10.1038/s41598-022-15174-x |pmid=35817808 |pmc=9273753 |bibcode=2022NatSR..1211747H |issn=2045-2322}} Grinding stones dating to 30,000 years have been found elsewhere in Australia, Europe, China, and the Levant, although there is no definitive evidence that these tools or their products were used for making breads.{{Cite journal |last1=Mariotti Lippi |first1=Marta |last2=Foggi |first2=Bruno |last3=Aranguren |first3=Biancamaria |last4=Ronchitelli |first4=Annamaria |last5=Revedin |first5=Anna |date=2015-09-29 |title=Multistep food plant processing at Grotta Paglicci (Southern Italy) around 32,600 cal B.P. |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=112 |issue=39 |pages=12075–12080 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1505213112 |doi-access=free |pmc=4593080 |pmid=26351674|bibcode=2015PNAS..11212075M }}{{Cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Li |last2=Ge |first2=Wei |last3=Bestel |first3=Sheahan |last4=Jones |first4=Duncan |last5=Shi |first5=Jinming |last6=Song |first6=Yanhua |last7=Chen |first7=Xingcan |date=2011-12-01 |title=Plant exploitation of the last foragers at Shizitan in the Middle Yellow River Valley China: evidence from grinding stones |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0305440311002949 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=38 |issue=12 |pages=3524–3532 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2011.08.015 |bibcode=2011JArSc..38.3524L |issn=0305-4403}}{{Cite journal |last1=Piperno |first1=Dolores R. |last2=Weiss |first2=Ehud |last3=Holst |first3=Irene |last4=Nadel |first4=Dani |date=August 2004 |title=Processing of wild cereal grains in the Upper Palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02734 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=430 |issue=7000 |pages=670–673 |doi=10.1038/nature02734 |pmid=15295598 |bibcode=2004Natur.430..670P |issn=1476-4687}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/22/indigenous-australians-know-were-the-oldest-living-culture-its-in-our-dreamtime|title=Indigenous Australians know we're the oldest living culture – it's in our Dreamtime {{!}} Larissa Behrendt|last=Behrendt|first=Larissa|date=2016-09-22|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-08-13|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web|url=https://phys.org/news/2010-10-prehistoric-ate-flatbread-years.html|title=Prehistoric man ate flatbread 30,000 years ago: study|website=phys.org|language=en-us|access-date=2019-08-13}}

Bread is otherwise strongly associated with agriculture. Wheat was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent.{{Cite web |url=http://www.sciencefromisrael.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,2,14;journal,9,41;linkingpublicationresults,1:300170,1 |title=Feldman, Moshe and Kislev, Mordechai E., Israel Journal of Plant Sciences, Volume 55, Number 3–4 / 2007, pp. 207–21, Domestication of emmer wheat and evolution of free-threshing tetraploid wheat in "A Century of Wheat Research-From Wild Emmer Discovery to Genome Analysis", Published Online: 3 November 2008 |access-date=6 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206013930/http://www.sciencefromisrael.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,2,14;journal,9,41;linkingpublicationresults,1:300170,1 |archive-date=6 December 2013 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}{{cite book|first1 = Sue | last1 = Colledge|author2=University College, London. Institute of Archaeology|title=The Origins and spread of domestic plants in Southwest Asia and Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D2nym35k_EcC&pg=PA40|access-date=5 July 2011|year=2007|publisher=Left Coast Press|isbn=978-1-59874-988-5|pages=40–}} Bread is found in Neolithic sites in Turkey and Europe from around 9,100 years ago.Popova, T. (2016) Bread remains in archaeological contexts. Southeast Europe and Anatolia in Prehistory Essays in Honor of Vassil Nikolov on His 65th Anniversary, eds Bacvarov, K.; Gleser, R. (Habelt, Bonn), pp 519–526.González Carretero, L.; Wollstonecroft, M.; Fuller, DQ. (2017) A methodological approach to the study of archaeological cereal meals: A case study at Çatalhöyük East (Turkey). Veg Hist Archaeobot 26:415–432.

There is extensive evidence of breadmaking in prehistoric Egypt during the Neolithic period, some 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, in the form of artistic depictions, remains of structures and items used in breadmaking, and remains of the dough and bread itself.{{cite book |last=Samuel |first=Delwen |editor-last=Kemp |editor-first=B. J. |title=Amarna Reports |publisher=Egypt Exploration Society |location=London |date=1989 |volume=5 |pages=1253–1290 |chapter=Chapter 12: Their staff of life: Initial investigations on ancient Egyptian bread baking |isbn=978-0-85698-109-8 |chapter-url=http://ancientgrains.org/samuel1989bread.pdf |access-date=17 April 2017 |archive-date=26 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726133627/http://ancientgrains.org/samuel1989bread.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |last1=Gonzalez Carretero |first1=Lara |title=3,500-year-old bread and beer from the New Kingdom, Egypt |url=https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/researchers-in-museums/2017/02/09/3500-year-old-bread-and-beer-from-the-new-kingdom-egypt/ |access-date=17 April 2017 |date=9 February 2017}}{{cite thesis |last1=Samuel |first1=D. |title=An archaeological study of baking and bread in New Kingdom Egypt (doctoral thesis) |url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/245007 |date=1994|publisher=University of Cambridge |doi=10.17863/CAM.15973 |type=Thesis }}{{cite book |last=Samuel |first=Delwen |editor1-last=Nicholson |editor1-first=P. T. |editor2-last=Shaw |editor2-first=I. |title=Ancient Egyptian materials and technology |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |date=2000 |pages=537–576 |chapter=Chapter 22: Brewing and baking |isbn=9780521452571 |chapter-url=http://ancientgrains.org/samuel2000aemt.pdf |access-date=17 April 2017 |archive-date=26 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726133418/http://ancientgrains.org/samuel2000aemt.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{cite journal |last1=Samuel |first1=D. |title=Investigation of Ancient Egyptian Baking and Brewing Methods by Correlative Microscopy |journal=Science |volume=273 |issue=5274 |year=1996 |pages=488–490 |doi=10.1126/science.273.5274.488|pmid=8662535 |bibcode=1996Sci...273..488S |s2cid=19453393 }}{{cite journal|last1=Samuel |first1=Delwen |title=Bread in archaeology |journal=Civilisations |issue=49 |year=2002 |pages=27–36 |doi=10.4000/civilisations.1353|doi-access=free }}

Findings from ancient Egypt follow those from prehistoric or predynastic Egypt:

File:Conical loaves of bread, Gebelein, 5th Dynasty c 2400 BC.jpg exactly as laid out in the Great Tomb, North Necropolis, Gebelein, 5th Dynasty (Old Kingdom), 2435–2305 BC. Excavations by Ernesto Schiaparelli, 1911. Egyptian Museum, Turin, S. 14051-14055.]] The ancient Egyptians had as cereals three kinds of wheat — Triticum sativa, zea and spelta ; barley, Hordeum vulgar ey and doura, Holcus sorghum , specimens of which may be seen in the Egyptian Gallery at the British Museum{{cite book |last1=Ashton |first1=John |title=The History of Bread |date=1904 |publisher=London : Religious Tract Society |location=University of Leeds |isbn=30106023325425 |page=20 |url=https://archive.org/details/b21538682/page/20/mode/2up}}

The most common source of leavening in antiquity was to retain a piece of dough from the previous day to utilize as a form of sourdough starter.Tannahill, Reay (1973). Food in History (Stein and Day. {{ISBN|0-8128-1437-1}}). p. 68f. Pliny the Elder reported that the Gauls and Iberians used the foam skimmed from beer to produce "a lighter kind of bread than other peoples". Parts of the ancient world that drank wine instead of beer used a paste composed of grape must and flour that was allowed to begin fermenting, or wheat bran steeped in wine, as a source for yeast. Also, different forms of currency were exchanged in Ancient Egypt before they began using coinage in the first millennium BC. Until this time, they did not rely on silver or gold, but instead exchanged everyday goods. For the poor, bread and beer were used to pay subsistence workers.{{Cite web |date=November 29, 2022 |title=Bread: The Most Important Thing In Human History |url=https://grantsbakery.co.uk/blogs/posts/bread-the-most-important-thing-in-human-history |access-date=November 29, 2022 |website=Grants}}

The idea of a free-standing oven that could be pre-heated, with a door for access, appears to have been Greek.Toussaint-Samat 2009, p.202

In the Americas, the Mayans were known as "the men of corn" and used that corn to create foods such as tortillas, tamales, and other breads. The people of modern-day Mexico have adopted these traditions, making corn and bread a popular part of Mexican dishes.{{Cite web |last=Bakery |first=Grant's |title=Bread: The Most Important Thing In Human History |url=https://grantsbakery.co.uk/blogs/posts/bread-the-most-important-thing-in-human-history |access-date=2022-12-01 |website=Grant's Bakery |language=en}}

Even in antiquity, there was a wide variety of breads. On the contrary to any concept of bread we may have nowadays (i.e. wheaten, leavened, baked), was the maza of the ancient Greeks, a very popular food made of barley meal, the preparation of which did not involve either leavening or baking,{{cite journal |last1=Valamoti |first1=Soultana-Maria |title=Investigating the Prehistoric Bread of Northern Greece |journal=Civilisations. Revue internationale d'anthropologie et de sciences humaines |date=2002-06-03 |issue=49 |pages=49–66 |doi=10.4000/civilisations.1359 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/civilisations/1359 |access-date=2025-04-05}} and Solon declared that wheat bread might only be baked for feast days. By the 5th century BC, bread could be purchased in Athens from a baker's shop, and in Rome, Greek bakers appeared in the 2nd century BC, as Hellenized Asia Minor was added to Roman dominion as the province of Asia;Toussaint-Samat 2009, p.204 gives a date of 168 for "a considerable influx of craftsmen bakers (pistores) of Greek origin into Rome". the foreign bakers of bread were permitted to form a collegium. In the Deipnosophistae, the author Athenaeus ({{circa|170|230 AD}}) describes some of the bread, cakes, and pastries available in the Classical world.Chrysippus of Tyana gives a list of thirty kinds, without commentary (Toussaint-Samat 2009, p. 202). Among the breads mentioned are griddle cakes, honey-and-oil bread, mushroom-shaped loaves covered in poppy seeds, and the military specialty of rolls baked on a spit. The type and quality of flours used to produce bread could also vary, as noted by Diphilus when he declared that "bread made of wheat, as compared with that made of barley, is more nourishing, more digestible, and in every way superior. In order of merit, the bread made from refined [thoroughly sieved] flour comes first, after that bread from ordinary wheat, and then the unbolted, made of flour that has not been sifted".Tannahill p. 91 The essentiality of bread in the diet was reflected in the name for the rest of the meal: ópson, "condiment", i.e., bread's accompaniment, whatever it might be.Changes in diet are reflected in the modern significance of opson as fish (Toussaint-Samat 2009, p. 202); in Italy, the contorni are now the accompaniment to the meat rather than bread.

File:Baker baking bread in an oven - miniature in a 13th century psalter.jpg

File:Peasants breaking bread.jpg)]]

In medieval Europe, bread served not only as a staple food but also as part of the table service. In the standard table setting of the day the trencher, a piece of stale bread roughly 6 inches by 4 inches (15 cm by 10 cm), was served as an absorbent plate. When food was scarce, an all-too-common occurrence in medieval Europe, the trencher when served would typically be eaten with or after a meal. In times of relative abundance, trenchers could be given to the poor or fed to the dogs. It was not until the 15th century that trenchers made of wood started to replace the bread variety.Tannahill p. 227 In Britain the price, weight, and quality of bread and beer were regulated by the Assize of Bread and Ale from the 13th century. Later in the 13th century, two further quasi-statutes were passed: The Judgement of Pillory and the Statute of English Bakers.{{Cite journal |last=Davis |first=James |date=2004 |title=Baking for the Common Good: A Reassessment of the Assize of Bread in Medieval England |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3698543 |journal=The Economic History Review |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=465–502 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2004.00285.x |jstor=3698543 |issn=0013-0117}} Assizes were abandoned in Glasgow in 1801, in London in 1815 and in the rest of Britain in 1836.{{cite book |last1=Otter |first1=Chris |title=Diet for a large planet |date=2020 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=USA |isbn=978-0-226-69710-9 |page=65 }}

The Corn Laws inflated the price of bread in the UK. The Anti-Corn Law League demanded cheap bread. After repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 cereal duties were substantially reduced and abolished in 1869.{{cite book |last1=Otter |first1=Chris |title=Diet for a large planet |date=2020 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=USA |isbn=978-0-226-69710-9 |page=66 }}

From the late 18th century to the end of the 19th century, bread sold in England and the United States was often adulterated with hazardous materials, including chalk, sawdust, alum, plaster, clay and ammonium carbonate. Frederick Accum was the first to raise alarm to the food adulteration in 1820. In 1837, American health reformer Sylvester Graham published Treatise on Bread and Bread-Making, which described how to use unrefined wheat flour to make Graham bread at home, in response to adulterated bread sold in public bake houses.{{Cite web |date=2014-04-25 |title=Sylvester Graham, Health Food Nut, Makes Butchers and Bakers Go Crackers |url=https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/sylvester-graham-health-food-nut-makes-butchers-bakers-crackers/ |access-date=2022-06-29 |website=New England Historical Society |language=en-US}}

This gradually came to an end with government action, such as the 1860 and 1899 Food Adulteration Acts in Britain.{{cite magazine |last=Coley |first=Noel |date=1 March 2005 |title=The fight against food adulteration |url=https://eic.rsc.org/feature/the-fight-against-food-adulteration/2020253.article |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=46–49 |url-status=live |magazine=Education in Chemistry |publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614144230/https://eic.rsc.org/feature/the-fight-against-food-adulteration/2020253.article |archive-date=14 June 2018 |access-date=14 June 2018}} America had a more difficult time ending these processes of adulteration, however, as various states had varying policies regarding bread making.MS., City Clerk's Office, Record Book, 1814-1820, pp. 3, 5.

In the mid-19th century, Britain imported much of its bread wheat from the United States.{{cite news |last1=Gulliver |first1=Katrina |title=The fruits of imperialism |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-fruits-of-imperialism |access-date=25 October 2020 |work=The Spectator |date=2 September 2017}}

Bread-baking was industrialized at the start of the 20th century. Otto Frederick Rohwedder developed a prototype bread-slicing machine in 1912, and a practical machine that both sliced and wrapped bread in 1928.{{cite news|url=http://www.chillicothecity.org/bread/breadnews1.html#070708|title=Sliced Bread Turns 80 Years Old|date=July 7, 2008|work=Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune|access-date=July 6, 2011|archive-date=12 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112033151/http://www.chillicothecity.org/bread/breadnews1.html#070708|url-status=dead}}It occupies a section in Sigfried Giedion, [1948] 1969. Mechanization Takes Command (Oxford University Press).

File:Factory Automation Robotics Palettizing Bread.jpg

It was discovered early on that while bran- and wheatgerm-discarding milling process can help improve white flour's shelf life, it does remove nutrients like some dietary fiber, iron, B vitamins, micronutrients{{cite web|url=http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/grains.html|title=Grains - What foods are in the grain group?|publisher=USDA.gov|work=ChooseMyPlate.gov|date=2009-10-01|access-date=2012-01-06|archive-date=7 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230207231058/https://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/grains.html|url-status=dead}} and essential fatty acids. The US government has mandated since 1941 fortification of white flour-based foods with some of the nutrients lost in milling, like thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and iron. This mandate came about in response to the vast nutrient deficiencies seen in US military recruits at the start of World War II.{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.jada.2005.06.009|pmid=16182650|title=Position of the American Dietetic Association: Fortification and Nutritional Supplements|journal=Journal of the American Dietetic Association|volume=105|issue=8|pages=1300–1311|year=2005|author1=American Dietetic Association}}

A major change in the United Kingdom was the development in 1961 of the Chorleywood bread process. This used the intense mechanical working of dough, and control of gases touching dough, to dramatically reduce the fermentation period and the time taken to produce a loaf at the expense of taste and nutrition.{{Cite web|url=http://www.allotment.org.uk/recipes/bread-making/chorleywood-process|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120522022319/http://www.allotment.org.uk/recipes/bread-making/chorleywood-process|url-status=dead|title=Criticisms of the Chorleywood bread process|archive-date=22 May 2012}}

For generations, white bread was the preferred bread of the rich while the poor ate dark (whole grain) bread. However, in most Western societies, the connotations reversed in the late 20th century, with whole-grain bread becoming preferred as having superior nutritional value while Chorleywood bread became associated with lower-class ignorance of nutrition.Christianne L.H. Hupkens, Ronald A. Knibbe, and Maris J. Drop, for example, analyzed social class variation in the intake of fat and fiber, including white bread consumption, in Maastricht, Liège, and Aachen, [https://archive.today/20120910012813/http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WB2-45RFD9K-4&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=f44217b8c767b67f9dccd684cdec64e0 "Social Class Differences in Women's Fat and Fibre Consumption: A Cross-National Study" 1995]; the literature on class perceptions and diet is enormous.

More recently, and especially in smaller retail bakeries, chemical additives are used that both speed up mixing time and reduce necessary fermentation time, so that a batch of bread may be mixed, made up, risen, and baked in fewer than three hours. Dough that does not require fermentation because of chemical additives is called "quick bread" by commercial bakers. The introduction of commercial yeasts during the 19th century was detrimental to sourdough as these speeded up the baking process making production much easier.{{Cite web |title=Bread: The Most Important Thing In Human History |url=https://grantsbakery.co.uk/blogs/posts/bread-the-most-important-thing-in-human-history |access-date=November 29, 2022 |website=Grants}} Common additives include reducing agents such as L-cysteine or sodium metabisulfite, and oxidants such as potassium bromate or ascorbic acid;{{cite book |last=Pyler |first=Ernst John |title=Our Daily Bread |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_EaPQAAACAAJ |year=1958 |publisher=Siebel |page=703}}{{cite journal |last1=Elkassabany |first1=M. |last2=Hoseney |first2=R.C. |last3=Seib |first3=P.A. |year=1980 |title=Ascorbic Acid as an Oxidant in Wheat Flour Dough. I. Conversion to Dehydroascorbic Acid |journal=Cereal Chem. |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=85–87 |url=http://www.aaccnet.org/publications/cc/backissues/1980/Documents/Chem57_85.pdf |access-date=9 February 2017 |archive-date=4 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130504011536/http://www.aaccnet.org/publications/cc/backissues/1980/Documents/Chem57_85.pdf |url-status=dead }} this last ingredient is added to whole meal bread to increase the softness of the loaf. Calcium was added to flour in the UK to prevent rickets, which had been detected as common in women who joined the World War II effort.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fob.uk.com/about-the-bread-industry/history-of-bread-antiquity/history-bread-20th-century/|title=Modern History of Bread - 20th Century UK|website=Federation of Bakers}}

However, in the 1980s, demand for sourdough in the UK grew to the point that in 1993, regulations were drawn up to define what could be sold as sourdough bread. In Germany, sourdough continued to be used for rye bread, even as commercial yeasts became more popular.

Since 1986, domestic bread makers that automate the process of making bread have become popular in the home.Nonaka, I.; Takeuchi, H. (1995), The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford University Press.

{{portal|Food}}

• Food history
• Cultural significance of bread

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Bread}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Bread}}

Bread