What would a piece of bread look like one or two thousand years ago?

by [deleted]

[deleted]

Sinhika

In most cases, exactly like loaves of bread made today in various parts of the world. Non-mass-produced breadmaking hasn't changed much.

Ancient Egyptian tomb paintings show a bread identical to that still made in Luxor, Egypt, called shamsi bread by modern Egyptians, and "sun bread" in English. They were round loaves with various designs picked out on the top. [1][2]

Ancient Roman bread-making is well documented in literature, and at least one carbonized bread loaf has been found in the ruins of Pompeii. It was a round loaf, segmented in pie-like wedges, with the baker's stamp still visible. (Roman bakers used bronze stamps to embed identifying marks in the bread loaves; by Roman law, all bread sold had identify who baked it, so if it was adulterated or underweight, the offending baker could be found and prosecuted).[3]

There are a lot of resources on the web for ancient and medieval bread-making; it seems to be a popular topic. Possibly even more popular than pre-modern beer-making...


[1] [Theban Mapping Project, "Sun Bread of Luxor"] (http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/articles/article_15.4.html)
[2] Egyptian Sun Bread
[3] Pompeiian bread loaf & a recipe

knoperope