Burnt byzantine bread love stamped with christian images

Bread from the 7th to 8th centuries bearing Christian images was found in the ancient ruins of Eirenopolis (present-day Topraktepe, Türkiye). They are among the best-preserved archaeological samples of bread found in Anatolia.

The five loaves were found to have been carbonized and therefore perfectly preserved, with the images printed on them still legible. The most elaborately decorated loaves bear the image of Christ, the sower who sows wheat for the harvest. A Greek inscription around the border translates as “Thanks be to Blessed Jesus,” a reference to John 6:35: Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger; whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

The other four are engraved with the Maltese cross. They are round and have embossed markings indicating that they are prophora, simple small loaves of leavened bread used in Greek Orthodox Eucharistic rites, either as the consecrated bread for the body of Christ shared during Holy Communion, or as antidoron, the blessed bread distributed after the rite. Imprinted bread is still used today as prophora and antidoron.

The discovery of Topraktepe extends beyond the value of a single artifact to a historical understanding of late antiquity and early medieval times in the Ermenek region. The existence of a center for the production of ritual objects of this quality and specific iconography suggests the existence of an active Christian community in Irenopolis that possessed the resources and expressed a unique theological identity through these manifestations that differed from the imperial canon.

The breads will undergo archaeobotanical studies to determine the exact composition of the grains used in their preparation, as well as microscopy and tomography techniques to better understand the manufacturing and carbonation processes. Each of these data points will help to more accurately reconstruct the rituals, daily life, agriculture, and beliefs of a community that baked its faith into bread more than thirteen hundred years ago and, through a quirk of archaeological preservation, tells its story to us today.