先有面包还是先有农业 约旦出土惊人新发现
http://www.cna.com.tw/news/aopl/201807170228-1.aspx
（中央社华盛顿16日综合外电报导）
约旦东北部的遗址出土一片 1万4500年前的面饼，表皮还能见焦黑
痕迹，让研究人员有了惊喜斩获：原来早在人类发展出农业数千年
前，就已开始制作面包这种主食。
不论从哪个角度切入，这项今天宣布的发现都直指，居住地中海东
部狩猎、采集的人们，早在人类奠定种植作物的根基前4000多年，
就已达到制作面包的文化里程碑，比过去所知还要早非常多。
新出土的面饼可能未经发酵，有点像我们现在吃的口袋饼。面皮用
了大麦、单粒小麦 （einkorn）或燕麦等野生谷类，以及水生纸莎
草亲缘植物的块茎，磨成面粉、并以手工制作而成。
这片面饼源自纳图夫（Natufian）文化，在黑色沙漠（Black Dese
rt）一处遗址出土。纳图夫人已结束游牧，开始迎向定居生活。
研究发表于美国期刊“国家科学院学报”（Proceedings of the N
ational Academy of Sciences），主要作者、哥本哈根大学考古
植物学博士后研究人员阿朗－欧达耶吉（Amaia Arranz-Otaegui）
说：“在属于这个年代的遗址出现面包，非比寻常。”
阿朗－欧达耶吉指出，直到目前为止，面包的起源一直与种植谷类
、豆科植物的早期农业社会相关连。过去年代最久远的面包证据，
出土自土耳其一处具有9100年历史的遗址。
阿朗－欧达耶吉说：“我们现在必须评估，制作面包和农业的起源
之间，是否存在关联性。”“如果面包成了炙手可热的食物，那就
有可能为人类提供诱因，开始种植作物与农耕。”
（译者：梁元龄/核稿：严思祺）1070717
This oven was used to make bread—thousands of years before agriculture
https://goo.gl/PW1tng
Thousands of years before the advent of agriculture, people were already
making bread. That’s the surprising conclusion of a new study based on a
curious find in northeastern Jordan.
At its most basic, bread is the combination of processed cereal grains and
water that have been baked, fried, or steamed. The process leaves behind
telltale chemical and structural properties that researchers can use to
identify the staple food. And that’s just what archaeologists found when
they investigated a 14,000-year-old site known as Shubayqa 1 in Jordan’s
Black Desert. The inhabitants, who were hunter-gatherers, left their home in
a hurry, with the contents of their most recent meal still smoldering in two
sunken fireplaces (one pictured).
With the help of a scanning electron microscope, which uses a beam of
electrons to return incredibly intricate zoomed-in images, the researchers
identified 24 pieces of char that were decidedly breadlike. Though the bread’
s exact grain remains unknown, its cellular structure resembles cereal grain
species such as wild einkorn, rye, or millet, and it was likely an
unleavened, flatbread. Some pieces incorporated root starches as well.