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What bread tasted like 4000 years ago
The Atlantic ^ | 8/29/2020 | KERIDWEN CORNELIUS

Posted on 08/29/2020 10:30:55 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom

Around 2000 B.C., a baker in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes captured yeast from the air and kneaded it into a triangle of dough. Once baked, the bread was buried in a dedication ceremony beneath the temple of Pharaoh Mentuhotep II on the west bank of the Nile.

There the yeast slept like a microbial mummy for four millennia, until 2019. That’s when Seamus Blackley—a physicist and game designer best known for creating the Xbox—suctioned it up with a syringe and revived it in a sourdough starter.

Blackley, an amateur Egyptologist, often thinks about this ancient baker as he attempts to re-create the bread of 2000 B.C. “I’m trying to learn from you, my friend,” he tweeted, as if speaking across time to the baker. “Your voice will never be silent … May you have life, forever.”

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Agriculture; Food; History; Science
KEYWORDS: agriculture; animalhusbandry; archaeology; bread; dietandcuisine; egypt; food; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; huntergatherers; seamusblackley; yeast
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Interesting article not just on Egyptian bread but a trend to use ancient baking methods.
1 posted on 08/29/2020 10:30:55 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: Oshkalaboomboom; SunkenCiv

They have also managed to revive yeast from King Tut’s tomb. That stuff is indestructible.


2 posted on 08/29/2020 10:33:22 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
as if speaking across time to the baker.

Who write this Shite?

3 posted on 08/29/2020 10:35:23 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Mocking Liberals is not only a right, but the duty of all Americans.)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Stale?


4 posted on 08/29/2020 10:35:37 AM PDT by mylife (Opinions: $1, Today's Special, Half Baked: 50c)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Fascinating. I would also love to see how beer tasted 4,000 years ago.


5 posted on 08/29/2020 10:36:08 AM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
That stuff is indestructible.

Uh, yeah, ask, um... women like Kamala about that.

6 posted on 08/29/2020 10:37:14 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...
Thanks Oshkalaboomboom. I think I knead to taste this.

7 posted on 08/29/2020 10:38:43 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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8 posted on 08/29/2020 10:39:59 AM PDT by mylife (Opinions: $1, Today's Special, Half Baked: 50c)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

To speak of the dead is to bring them to life ~ Egyptian proverb


9 posted on 08/29/2020 10:40:16 AM PDT by null and void (The Left weaponizes everything in the service of tyranny.)
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To: mylife

Stale doesn’t even come close to what Wallyworld put in my order the other day. Hard as a rock. Been putting it in the toaster to make believe it was supposed to be this hard.


10 posted on 08/29/2020 10:40:30 AM PDT by bgill
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To: SamAdams76

My guess is that it would be very dark and bitter.

I always wondered how they got the first guy to drink it. We have this liquid that we forgot about in a jar. It comes from stuff we were making for breakfast last week.


11 posted on 08/29/2020 10:41:15 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (These aren't my pants!)
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To: null and void

Nice one, Nully! :o]


12 posted on 08/29/2020 10:42:10 AM PDT by Monkey Face ("Tell them is fake news, work of moose and squirrel." ~~ Boris & Natasha to POTUS Trump.~~)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

It was probably very gritty as it was in the Medieval period. During the medieval period, white flour was expensive so only the rich could afford it. The peasants got the dark flour to make their bread.


13 posted on 08/29/2020 10:44:34 AM PDT by mass55th ("Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." ~~ John Wayne)
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To: SamAdams76
"Fascinating. I would also love to see how beer tasted 4,000 years ago."

Could have been very bitter, unless they added honey to it. Egyptians were bee keepers.

14 posted on 08/29/2020 10:45:57 AM PDT by mass55th ("Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." ~~ John Wayne)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
"yeast from King Tut's tomb"

Was that yeast from his toenails?

15 posted on 08/29/2020 10:48:54 AM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

I read the article but still don’t know.


16 posted on 08/29/2020 10:50:41 AM PDT by Islander7 (There is no septic system so vile, so filthy, the left won't drink from to further their agenda)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Isn’t yeast part of decay.


17 posted on 08/29/2020 10:51:48 AM PDT by the_daug
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To: mad_as_he$$

Probably better than the water


18 posted on 08/29/2020 10:52:11 AM PDT by oldsicilian
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To: bgill

Some Walmart bakers are pretty good, did you do squeeze test?


19 posted on 08/29/2020 10:57:28 AM PDT by mylife (Opinions: $1, Today's Special, Half Baked: 50c)
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To: Islander7

“I read the article but still don’t know.”

Funny, I had the same impression. A few paragraphs down when I realized I was reading words cleverly linked together to give a false impression of providing actual information, I looked at the source. Eureka. The Atlantic?

Left the site immediately.


20 posted on 08/29/2020 11:04:43 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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