The New York Times published an article about Otzi, Europe’s oldest mummy. Otzi lived 3,300 years ago in The Copper Age. His last meal (about 1/2 hour before his death), consisted of ibex meat, ferns and einkorn wheat. Investigators determined that the wheat was so finely ground that it more than likely had been processed into flour to be baked into bread.

In August 2019, Seamus Blackley, a scientist, baked a loaf of bread using some ancient yeast found in Egyptian pottery, and his culinary journey went viral.  Blackley worked with Egyptologist, Dr. Serena Love and microbiologist, Richard Bowman to obtain dormant yeast samples from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard.  Blackley went to Peabody to attempt to collect some 4,500 year old yeast from ancient Egyptian pottery. The yeast was cultivated from the pores of ancient ceramic pots that were once used for beer and bread making, For over a year, Blackley and his colleagues collected samples from these pots and studied the microorganisms within them. You can read Blackley’s posts and see his pics on Twitter.   Truly amazing!