Archaeologists have uncovered evidence in Israel that bread was being made at least 22,000 years ago.
    Although the earliest signs of the deliberate cultivation of wheat and barley in the Middle East date back 10,000 years, the new discovery shows that people were processing wild cereal 12,000 years before the birth of organised agriculture.
    The site - a settlement of six huts, hearths and a grave by the Sea of Galilee - yielded a large flat stone upon which were found 150 starch grains, suggesting wild barley and grass seeds were being milled for dough.
    Dr Dolores Piperno, of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington said: "The beginning of baking was probably an important step forward in human nutrition."

Source: Daily Telegraph (5 August 2004)