Among the remains, the team unearthed small, round tubers of a wetland plant known as club-rush, traces of legumes and plants belonging to the cabbage family, wild cereals including some ground wheat and barley – and 642 small charred lumps.
Analysis of 24 of these lumps revealed they are bread-like – with the others expected to be similar.
“They are charred breadcrumbs, sort of what you might find at the bottom of your toaster at home – the sort of stuff that falls off when you put it on high power,” said Richter.
Further analyses revealed that 15 of the 24 crumbs contain tissues from cereal plants – probably, says Richter, from barley, einkorn wheat or oats.
Two random observations. I've been seeing a lot of archeology and anthropology articles recently. They might be kind of the flavor of the week for science articles right now, but they're a welcome flavor. Additionally, it seems lately for science articles the secondary headline is both more informative and more interesting than the main headline. I've been compelled to use the secondary headline in a few articles I've posted recently.