Australian Aboriginals Have Been Baking Bread for 34,000 Years

By
Abdul Moeed
November 4, 2024



Australian Aboriginals were the first to bake bread. Credit: Dan / Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0

The Egyptians have long been thought of as the first bread makers, believed to have begun baking bread around 8000 BC. However, recent findings show that Australian Aboriginals beat them to the bread game by a wide margin.

Aboriginal Australians began baking bread over thirty-four thousand years ago. Archaeologists found old grindstones in New South Wales, proving that Aboriginals were grinding seeds into flour for baking way ahead of the Egyptians.

Despite the common perception of Aboriginals as simple hunter-gatherers, the observations of early white settlers reveal a more advanced agricultural side. They noticed cultivated fields, particularly for crops like the ‘murrnong’ yam, indicating a sophisticated approach to farming, according to Ancient Origins.

An Australian author, Bruce Pascoe, in his book Dark Emu, Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?, challenges the common belief that Aboriginals were only hunter-gatherers after European colonization.

“Yes, we were the first to invent bread by 15,000 years,” he said. “The Egyptians began cooking bread 17,000 years ago and one Australian grain grinding dish has been dated at least 34,000 years of age.”

More:
https://greekreporter.com/2024/11/04/australian-aboriginals-baking-bread-34000-years/