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Bread was central to the formation of early human societies.

From the Fertile Crescent, where wheat was domesticated, cultivation spread north and west, to Europe and North Africa, and east toward East Asia. This in turn led to the formation of towns, which curtailed nomadic lifestyles, and gave rise to other forms of societal organization.

Charred crumbs of "unleavened flat bread-like products" made by Natufian hunter-gatherers, likely cooked from wild wheat, wild barley and Bolboschoenus glaucus tubers between 14,600 and 11,600 years ago, have been found at the archaeological site of Shubayqa 1 in the Black Desert in Jordan. These remains predate the earliest-known making of bread from cultivated wheat by thousands of years. Grinding stones recently unearthed in Australia have been dated to 60,000 years ago and are currently the earliest evidence of seed processing in the world. Grinding stones dating to 30,000 years have been found elsewhere in Australia, Europe, China, and the Levant, although there is no definitive evidence that these tools or their products were used for making breads, except in Australia. Bread is found in Neolithic sites in Turkey and Europe from around 9,100 years ago.

There is extensive evidence of breadmaking in prehistoric Egypt during the Neolithic period, some 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, in the form of artistic depictions, remains of structures and items used in breadmaking, and remains of the dough and bread itself.

On the contrary to any concept of bread we may have nowadays (i.e. wheaten, leavened, baked), was the maza of the ancient Greeks, a very popular food made of barley meal, the preparation of which did not involve either leavening or baking, and Solon declared that wheat bread might only be baked for feast days. By the 5th century BC, bread could be purchased in Athens from a baker's shop, and in Rome, Greek bakers appeared in the 2nd century BC, as Hellenized Asia Minor was added to Roman dominion as the province of Asia; the foreign bakers of bread were permitted to form a collegium. The type and quality of flours used to produce bread could also vary, as noted by Diphilus when he declared that "bread made of wheat, as compared with that made of barley, is more nourishing, more digestible, and in every way superior. In order of merit, the bread made from refined flour comes first, after that bread from ordinary wheat, and then the unbolted, made of flour that has not been sifted".

A wide variety of breads appeared, including white bread, raqāq (thin bread), flavored bread, and barley bread. During this period, bread began to be used for making sandwiches.

In medieval Europe, bread served not only as a staple food but also as part of the table service. In Britain the price, weight, and quality of bread and beer were regulated by the Assize of Bread and Ale from the 13th century.

From the late 18th century to the end of the 19th century, bread sold in England and the United States was often adulterated with hazardous materials, including chalk, sawdust, alum, plaster, clay and ammonium carbonate. In 1837, American health reformer Sylvester Graham published Treatise on Bread and Bread-Making, which described how to use unrefined wheat flour to make Graham bread at home, in response to adulterated bread sold in public bake houses. In the mid-19th century, Britain imported much of its bread wheat from the United States.

For generations, white bread was the preferred bread of the rich while the poor ate dark (whole grain) bread. However, in most Western societies, the connotations reversed in the late 20th century, with whole-grain bread becoming preferred as having superior nutritional value while Chorleywood bread became associated with lower-class ignorance of nutrition. Since 1986, domestic bread makers that automate the process of making bread have become popular in the home.

Quick Facts

• A wide variety of breads appeared, including white bread, raqāq (thin bread), flavored bread, and barley bread.
• These remains predate the earliest-known making of bread from cultivated wheat by thousands of years.
• For generations, white bread was the preferred bread of the rich while the poor ate dark (whole grain) bread.
• In 1837, American health reformer Sylvester Graham published Treatise on Bread and Bread-Making, which described how to use unrefined wheat flour to make Graham bread at home, in response to adulterated bread sold in public bake houses.
• From the Fertile Crescent, where wheat was domesticated, cultivation spread north and west, to Europe and North Africa, and east toward East Asia.

Source material: Wikipedia - "History of bread". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.