Archaeologists find ancient 5,000-year-old bread preserved underground

You might have a couple of slices of bread lingering in your freezer that have been there for long enough to deserve a spot in a museum, but sadly it seems some Turkish archaeologists have some that will blow it out of the water.

In a rare find, archaeologists at the Kulluoba site in the Eskisehir province of central Turkey have unearthed a load of bread that’s around 5,000 years old. It’s one of the oldest baked items ever discovered.

It's probably best that nobody tries to eat it (YASIN AKGUL / Contributor/Getty Images)

The discovery was made in September 2024 but it’s only been revealed to the world since May 2025.

It would have been baked during Turkey’s Bronze Age, with the research team saying it was burned and buried beneath the entrance of a building that dates back to 3,300 BC.

The bread measures around 5 inches across, and it seems it was torn before being buried. Despite the years having taken its toll, and the fact it seems burned, it’s still recognisably bread.

"Bread is a rare find during an excavation. Usually, you only find crumbs," said Murat Türkteki, archaeologist and director of the excavation, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“It’s clear from the evidence that the bread was both fermented and baked quickly, and then burned,” Türkteki added, according to Archaeology Magazine. “If it hadn’t been charred, it may not have survived to this day.”

The bread has inspired Turkish bakers to try their hands at recreating a fresh loaf with a recipe based on ancient wheat, known as emmer, that thrives in droughts.

Speaking to AFP, bakery manager Serap Güler said the bread is made with ‘ancestral wheat flour, lentils and bulgur, [which] results in a rich, satiating, low-gluten, preservative-free bread.’

An aerial view of the dig site at Kulluoba (YASIN AKGUL / Contributor/Getty Images)

Attempts to recreate the bread have captured local imaginations, with many people keen to try out what this ancient bread tasted like. Suzan Kuru, also speaking to AFP, was ‘curious about the taste of this ancient bread’, and so ‘rushed because I was afraid there wouldn't be any left’.

Bakers at Halk Ekmek bakery produced 300 loaves, according to the BBC, and sold out within hours. They used Kavilca wheat as a substitue for the emmer flour.

As to who might have baked the discovered bread, Archaeology Magazine added: “Archaeologists are not certain exactly who lived in Küllüoba Höyük at the time the bread was baked, but during the Bronze Age the area was inhabited by the Hattians, an Anatolian people who preceded the Hittites.”