Archaeologists Uncover 7,000-Year-Old Focaccia Seasoned With Animal Fats and Plant Oils

Imagine digging into a freshly baked and seasoned focaccia with your friends and family. No, these aren’t conscionable your upcoming Thanksgiving plans—it’s a 7,000-year-old gastronomic tradition.

Researchers, including scholars from the University La Sapienza successful Rome and the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, person discovered that cultivation communities surviving successful the Near East betwixt 7000 and 5000 BCE apt baked and consumed ample loaves of breadstuff and focaccia seasoned with animal- and plant-derived ingredients. Their findings, elaborate successful a November 5 study published successful the journal Scientific Reports, powerfully suggests that Late Neolithic radical successful the Fertile Crescent portion enjoyed a rich—and intelligibly tasty—culinary tradition.

“Our survey offers a vivid representation of communities utilizing the cereals they cultivated to hole breads and ‘focaccias’ enriched with assorted ingredients and consumed successful groups,” Sergio Taranto of the University La Sapienza and pb writer successful the survey said successful a Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona statement. “The usage of the husking trays we identified leads america to see that this Late Neolithic culinary contented developed implicit astir six centuries and was practiced successful a wide country of the Near East.”

According to the study, erstwhile probe had already established that Late Neolithic communities successful this portion baked loaves made with h2o and flour successful husking trays—large specialized clay trays with debased walls, oval bases, and intentionally unsmooth interior surfaces designed to assistance merchandise baked bread. The researchers tested this with immoderate experimental archaeology, utilizing replicas of husking trays to cook with (what’s the constituent of studying prehistoric breadstuff if you don’t get to illustration immoderate yourself?).

As a effect of these experiments, the squad theorizes that Late Neolithic bakers placed the trays successful domed ovens with a starting somesthesia of 788 degrees Fahrenheit (420 degrees Celsius) for astir 2 hours. The loaves each weighed astir 6.6 pounds (3 kilograms), suggesting that radical ate them arsenic a group.

Animal-fat seasoned experimental focaccia arsenic it whitethorn person been baked successful the Late Neolithic successful the Near East. © Sergio Taranto CC BY-ND

The survey besides explored whether the husking trays could person been utilized to cook cereal-based doughs, perchance seasoned with rootlike lipid oregon carnal fat. To fig this out, the planetary squad analyzed integrated residues successful husking tray fragments dating to betwixt 6400 and 5900 BCE from the archaeological sites of Mezraa Teleilat, Akarçay Tepe, and Tell Sabi Abyad on the Syria-Turkey border.

Their investigation suggests that Late Neolithic radical utilized husking trays to process flour from cereals similar wheat oregon barley, and immoderate trays to hole foods utilizing carnal ingredients, similar carnal fat. In 1 case, there’s adjacent grounds of plant-based seasoning, according to the study.

Furthermore, the “degradation authorities of the residues suggests that, successful astatine slightest 2 cases, the trays reached temperatures compatible with those experimentally verified for baking dough successful domed ovens.” In different words, the integrated residues seemingly corroborate that the trays were exposed to temperatures that erstwhile experiments had determined indispensable to cook the breadstuff successful domed ovens. The researchers besides identified grounds of use-wear (traces near by utilizing an object) successful the husking trays linked to breadstuff and seasoned focaccia residues.

Overall, the survey enriches erstwhile findings astir Late Neolithic breadstuff baking successful the Near East by highlighting definite ingredients processed successful husking trays that apt contributed to a much analyzable culinary tradition. Essentially, radical surviving successful modern-day Turkey and Syria were enjoying tasty focaccia up to 9,000 years earlier we started purchasing it astatine Eataly. That’s conscionable 3,500 years aft the extremity of the past Ice Age, and it confirms what Italians person ever known: focaccia transcends history.