Archaeologists in Türkiye’s central Eskişehir province have uncovered what is believed to be the world’s oldest known example of leavened and baked bread, dating back nearly 5,000 years. The extraordinary discovery was made during ongoing excavations at the Küllüoba mound in the Seyitgazi district.
The ancient bread was found intact in the threshold of a room within a residential structure at the excavation site. Radiocarbon analysis confirmed that the bread dates back to the Early Bronze Age I period, around 3,000 B.C. Measuring 12 centimeters in diameter, 2.5 centimeters in thickness, and weighing approximately 65 grams, the bread is considered the earliest fully formed, leavened and baked example ever unearthed.
“This is a significant find. While earlier examples of dough have been discovered, such as at Çatalhöyük, they were unbaked,” said excavation leader Prof. Dr. Murat Türkteki of Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University’s archaeology department.
“The Küllüoba bread is unique in that it was intentionally baked and placed in the structure. There is no other known example like it.”
Initial analysis revealed the bread was made using coarse-ground emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum), an ancient grain still found in southeastern Türkiye, along with lentils, offering rare insight into the dietary practices of early Anatolian civilizations.
In honor of this groundbreaking find, the Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality has recreated the ancient bread using a recipe based on the original ingredients. Produced with flour from stone-milled emmer, einkorn (gacer), and lentils — all low in gluten — the "Küllüoba bread" is now available at municipal markets across the city for TL 50.
The bread, along with other food-related archaeological artifacts from the Küllüoba and Yazılıkaya Midas sites, is also on display at the ETI Archaeology Museum as part of International Museum Week celebrations. The exhibit opened with the participation of provincial and municipal leaders, as well as leading academics from Türkiye’s archaeology community.http://The 5,000-year-old "Küllüoba bread," unearthed during the ongoing excavations at the Küllüoba Mound in Eskişehir’s Seyitgazi district since 1996, is now on display at the ETİ Archaeology Museum.
Governor Hüseyin Aksoy highlighted the significance of the ongoing excavations in Eskişehir, where five separate archaeological digs are currently underway. “This region holds a wealth of cultural history, and we are committed to preserving and promoting it,” he said.
The Küllüoba site, first excavated in 1996 with permission from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, has revealed numerous artifacts from the Early Bronze Age, including tombs, animal remains, and some of the earliest signs of urbanization in Anatolia.
