新奇事件簿 研究人员发现世界上最古老的面包（在线收听）

Researchers have found the world's oldest example of bread. A research team from the universities of Cambridge, Copenhagen and London found ancient breadcrumbs while on an archaeological dig in Jordan. The breadcrumbs were charred and burnt, which is how they survived for so long. The researchers dated the crumbs and found they were roughly 14,400 years old. This means that people in the Stone Age were baking bread. The researchers said humans were making bread 4,000 years earlier than scientists thought. The people who baked the bread lived in Jordan from around 12,500 to 9,500 B.C. They were hunter gather and lived thousands of years before humans settled down to become farmers.

研究人员发现了世界上最古老面包的证据。来自剑桥大学、哥本哈根大学以及伦敦大学的一支研究团队在约旦考古挖掘时发现了古代的面包碎屑。这些面包碎屑被烧焦了，因此才得以保存那么长时间。研究人员确定这些面包屑约有14400年历史。这意味着人类在石器时代就开始烤面包了。研究人员表示人类开始制作面包的时间比科学家们认为的要早了4千年。烤面包的人居住在公元前12,500年至9500年的约旦。他们是一群猎人，在人类定居成为农民的几千年前就在此聚集生活。

The researchers discovered 24 burnt breadcrumbs. They analyzed them and found they were made from cereal plants such as barley, wheat and oats. Lead researcher, Dr Amaia Otaegui, said the bread took a long time to make. The ancient Jordanians began by grinding cereals into a fine flour. They then mixed the flour with water to make dough. After that, they baked it in the hot ashes of a fireplace or on a hot stone. The bread looked like the flat pitta bread still made across the Middle East today. Another researcher said the bread could be one reason for the agricultural revolution starting. Stone Age people realized it was easier and more convenient to farm the wheat for bread instead of gathering it from the wild.

研究人员发现了24粒烧焦的面包屑。他们对此进行了分析并发现这些面包屑是由谷类植物制成，比如大麦、小麦和燕麦。领头研究人员Amaia Otaegui博士表示制作这些面包需要花很长时间。首先古约旦人要将这些谷物磨成精面粉。然后将面粉和水融合制成面团。然后，他们将面团放入壁炉的灼热灰烬中或放在热石头上烘烤。面包看起来像是扁平的皮塔饼，如今的中东依然有这种饼。另一名研究人员表示这些面包可以作为农业革命兴起的原因之一。石器时代的人意识到种植小麦制作面包要比从野外收集要更加容易且方便。