In the soft earth beneath the threshold of a Bronze Age home, a disc of bread lay waiting. It had been torn, charred, and buried—sealed into the foundation of a house that once stood in what is now central Turkey.
More than five millennia later, archaeologists unearthed it at the site of Küllüoba, near Eskişehir, and sparked a revival no one had predicted: not just of an ancient recipe, but perhaps of a new agricultural future.
The Bronze Age Ritual Loaf
The bread was round and flat, like a pancake, and just 13 centimeters (5 inches) across. It wasn’t crumbly dust, like so many ancient food remains. Remarkably, it had kept its shape—preserved by fire and soil since around 3300 B.C.
“This is the oldest baked bread to have come to light during an excavation, and it has largely been able to preserve its shape,” said Murat Türkteki, the archaeologist who directs the excavation at Küllüoba. “Bread is a rare find during an excavation. Usually, you only find crumbs.”
One piece had been torn off. Then it was burned. Then buried beneath the doorstep of a newly built house. “It makes us think of a ritual of abundance,” Türkteki added.
The loaf, unearthed in September 2024, has been on display since March at the Eskişehir Archaeological Museum. It’s dry and blackened, but unmistakably bread.
From Museum to Bakery
When Eskişehir’s mayor, Ayşe Ünlüce, saw the ancient loaf, she had an idea. “We were very moved by this discovery. Talking to our excavation director, I wondered if we could reproduce this bread,” she said.
That effort led the city to Halk Ekmek—meaning “People’s Bread”—a municipally supported bakery that provides affordable food to local residents. Using archaeobotanical analysis of the bread, the team knew it had been made from coarsely ground emmer wheat and lentil seeds. A leaf from an unidentified plant was likely used as a natural yeast.
But emmer seeds no longer grow in Turkey. So the bakers reached for Kavilca wheat, an ancient variety still found in parts of Anatolia. They mixed it with bulgur and lentils—foods still central to the region’s cuisine.
The result was a firm, low-gluten, preservative-free bread. According to Serap Güler, the bakery’s manager, “The combination of ancestral wheat flour, lentils and bulgur results in a rich, satiating, low-gluten, preservative-free bread.”
The public response was immediate. Loaves sold out in hours. The bakery now makes 300 Küllüoba loaves a day, each weighing about 300 grams and costing just 50 Turkish lira—roughly $1.30.
“I rushed because I was afraid there wouldn’t be any left,” said one customer, Suzan Kuru. “I’m curious about the taste of this ancient bread.”
A Grain for a Thirsty Future
The Eskisehir region, once rich in water, is now suffering from drought. Yet many farmers continue to grow water-intensive crops like corn and sunflowers. Kavilca wheat, by contrast, is drought-resistant and robust against disease.
“Our ancestors are teaching us a lesson,” said Mayor Ünlüce. “Like them, we should be moving towards less thirsty crops.”
The city now hopes to encourage local farmers to revive Kavilca cultivation as a strategy for adapting to climate change. “We need strong policies on this subject. Cultivating ancient wheat will be a symbolic step in this direction,” Ünlüce said.
As archaeologists continue to study Küllüoba—a settlement of the Hattians, the Anatolian people who preceded the Hittites—each artifact brings more of the past to life. The town was a modest hub of Bronze Age life, involved in agriculture, crafts, trade, and mining.
But it’s the bread that’s captured the public’s imagination. Preserved for 5,000 years, it speaks not only of sustenance, but of ritual, memory, and ingenuity.
“These lands have preserved this bread for 5,000 years and given us this gift,” said Mayor Ünlüce. “We have a duty to protect this heritage and pass it on.”
