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thesweetcheat

6210 posts

Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought

Jul 17, 2018, 19:49

For all the wonderful discoveries of hidden henges and passage graves, this really is mind-blowing:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/science-environment-44846874

"This happened before the advent of farming, when people started growing cereal crops and keeping animals.

......

This raises the intriguing possibility that growing cereals for bread may have been the driving force behind farming."

Replies:
Re: Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought (tjj)
Re: Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought (Sanctuary)
Re: Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought (Monganaut)

tjj

3606 posts

Re: Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought

Jul 17, 2018, 22:19

Just thinking aloud. This again raises something which once intrigued me a lot. How much light do the religious writings of the Old Testament reflect on the prehistory of the Middle East. I think it is accepted they mostly what we now call Bronze Age but maybe they draw on more ancient knowledge.
What exactly was manna - which clearly was life sustaining. Many references to manna in the Old Testament (apparently).
Numbers 11:7-9
The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down."

In reply to:
Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought (thesweetcheat)

Replies:
Re: Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought (thesweetcheat)

thesweetcheat

6210 posts

Re: Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought

Jul 18, 2018, 19:34

Mmm, sounds pretty good.

I think this discovery is fascinating. Even if it can't realistically prove hat baking preceded farming (a big speculation from one loaf of sliced white), the fact the date has been pushed so far back is very serious news.

In reply to:
Re: Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought (tjj)

Replies:
Re: Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought (thesweetcheat)

thesweetcheat

6210 posts

Re: Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought

Jul 18, 2018, 19:35

thesweetcheat wrote:

Edit - "that baking". I don't think "hat baking" is a thing.

In reply to:
Re: Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought (thesweetcheat)

Sanctuary

4670 posts

Re: Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought

Jul 18, 2018, 20:42

thesweetcheat wrote:

I suppose 'baking' in different forms could go back since man first inhabited the earth. The term 'baking hot' is as old as the hills in certain countries that have extremely high temperatures with food baked on a flat stone surface found anywhere rather like the well-known egg being fried on a large boulder!

In reply to:
Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought (thesweetcheat)

Monganaut

2373 posts

Re: Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought

Jul 18, 2018, 22:13

Yeah, I saw that he other day. I think I read a report somewhere ont' web that some peeps think that the original cultivation of cereal was cos' of beer. Though of course, you can make 'small' (i.e weak) beer from bread, with a little added (wild) yeast and honey. The process also helps to purify drinking water (hence it's production and mass consumption during middle ages and before).
Also, the basic diet of pyramid builders was bread and beer.
It's all a bit chicken and egg.

Can't find the bloody research paper I saw it in, but these two give a rough overview...
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/did-a-thirst-for-beer-spark-civilization-1869187.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/opinion/sunday/how-beer-gave-us-civilization.html

In reply to:
Baking started 5000 years earlier than thought (thesweetcheat)

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