Mysterious white, powdery substance found inside 3,000-year-old ruins in Armenia isn’t what it seems

Archaeologists in Armenia have unearthed the ruins of a 3,000-year-old bakery that still contains heaps of flour.  

The mysterious piles of white powder found inside the ruins of a 3,000-year-old building in Armenia are a food historian’s dream – the remains of ancient flour.

A team of Polish-Armenian archaeologists made the discovery while working at an archaeological site in the western Armenian town of Metsamor last fall. After determining the type of flour and digging up several ovens, the team realized that the old structure used to be a large bakery. According to Science in Poland, a Polish news site co-run by independent media and the government, dust from stale flour is sprinkled on dust-covered ruins, including some ovens.

Krzysztof Jakubiak, an archeology professor at the University of Warsaw who led the excavation, told Live Science: “At first glance, it looks like ash. “We knew it was something organic and collected about 4-5 bags of material.” 

After performing chemical analysis, the team determined that the substance was flour used to bake bread. They estimate that at one point, about 3.5 tons (3.2 tons) of flour would be stored inside the 82 x 82 foot (25 x 25 meter) building, which has two rows of 18 wooden columns supporting one Reed. wooden beam roof. Researchers estimate that the bakery was in operation between the 11th and 9th centuries BC. Early Iron Age, according to Science in Poland.

“This is one of the oldest known structures of its kind in Metsamor,” says Jakubiak. “Because the roof of the structure collapsed in a fire, it protected everything, and luckily the flour survived. Surprised; Under normal circumstances, everything would burn out and disappear completely.”

Jakubiak said that before the building became a bakery, it may have been “used for ceremonies or meetings and then turned into a warehouse”.

Although not much is known about the ancient inhabitants of Metsamor, since they had no written language, scholars do know that the walled city became part of the Biblical kingdom of Urarat (also known as Urarat). spelled Urartu listen)) after being conquered by King Argishti I in the eighth century BC. Before that, it had an area of ​​247 acres (100 hectares) and was once “surrounded by temple complexes with seven shrines”, according to Science in Poland.

Previous excavations at Metsamor have revealed a fortified settlement with a cemetery containing 100 graves. According to the Miami Herald, although many of the graves are empty, possibly due to looting, one contains many gold pendants and about 100 jewels.