Kneads must for ancestors as bread breakthrough reveals early plant use

WASHINGTON - Danish and British scientists have found the oldest direct evidence of breadmaking, at least 4,000 years before the advent of agriculture.

A study published on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported the charred remains of a flatbread baked 14,400 years ago at an archaeological site in northeastern Jordan.

The findings suggest that bread production based on wild cereals may have encouraged hunter-gatherers to cultivate cereals, thus contributing to the agricultural revolution in the Neolithic period.