Bread, the staple of life, is mentioned many times by classical writers, and a yeasted bread was also discovered from the late Neolithic levels at Douanne on lake Bienne in Switzerland. (AUDOUZE & BUCHSENSCHTZ 1989:125). It is not at all difficult to produce a yeasted loaf of bread as one might imagine. Yeast production today, and throughout history has been linked with the brewing of Beer and Wine. 

' The interdependence between the grain and the yeast, between bread and fermenting liquor, was certainly established in the earliest times and has persisted throughout history' (David 1977: 90). 

Further testimony for the link between brewing and baking was found in a tomb of the middle kingdom in Egypt c.2000 BC, this was a wooden model of a brewhouse and bakehouse on display at the British Museum. Certain fruits are host to large amounts of wild yeasts on their skins, such as the Grape, and in Northern Europe the Elderberry (Sambucus nigra). Fermenting wine or beer can be added to

flour, to produce leavened bread. Plinny the elder commented on this practice. (Plinny Vol. 5 book 18: 68) 'When the corn of Gaul and Spain of the kinds we have stated is steeped to make beer the foam that forms on the surface in the process for leaven, in consequence of which those races have a lighter kind of bread than others'.  

This is not the opinion we generally have of the barbarian Celts bread. One would assume that the Roman bread was lighter and finer than that of the Celts, if this were so I am sure Plinny would have made a point of stating this. It is possible, I have found, from my own research in this field, to preserve a wild yeast concentrate for some months until required for use. It is well known that the Celts in particular were very fond of wine and Beer. Strabo comments on the European Celts.

'They also drink beer: but they are scarce of wine, and what wine they have made they speedily drink up in merry feasting with their kinsfolk' (Strabo vol. 2:75)  

The fermenting of grains to make alcohol is thought to have begun at the same time as the first cultivation of grains. The growing of grain had become widespread between Iran and Turkey around 10,000 years ago (Harris 1997: 8). In ancient Mesopotamian texts in the 3rd millennium BC there are said to be a list of 19 different types of beer made according to the combinations of grains and herbs used in their manufacture ( Davidson 1992 : 23). 

Yet growing grain does not seem to appear in Northern Europe until the Neolithic approx. 6,000 years ago (Robinson 1993 : 35). In Britain a small quantity of impressions of grain have been found on Neolithic pottery at Abingdon causeway enclosure in Oxfordshire (Avery 1982 : 48) which give us concrete evidence that Emmer Wheat (Triticum dicoccum) and six row Barley (Hordeum vulgare) were in some quantity cultivated during this period. Widespread evidence of grain cultivation in Britain however is not found until the Bronze Age approx. 3,500 years ago. I am often asked how prehistoric people might have discovered the process of Beer making. I believe it has a lot to do with the storage of grain in pits. The classical historian Diodorus Siculus comments on how the Ancient Britons harvested their grain (Siculus 5 :22) 'They dwell in mean cottages, covered for the most part with reeds or sticks. In the reaping of their corn, they cut off the ears from the stalks, and so house them in repositories underground'. There is widespread archaeological evidence for these grain storage pits throughout Europe.

'Storage pits can be distinguished from innumerable pits found all over protohistoric settlements by their characteristic shape. They are usually circular in plan and generally small, being only rarely more than 3m in diameter. The depth is usually equal to or greater than the maximum diameter. The opening was originally smaller in diameter than the maximum diameter of the pit. These characteristics stem from the need to have large a storage capacity as possible with the smallest possible opening, which usually seems to have been worked out so as to allow a man to get inside.

A. Villes has observed that in Champagne in the La Tene period the average diameter of the aperture was 60-70 cm' (Audouze and Buchsenchutz 1991 :129). In different regions these pits vary in shape and size, but the basic principle is the same. A large hole is dug into the ground most commonly a bell shape, essentially a large rounded hole with a narrow neck at the top. Grain is poured into the pit after the harvest and presumably a plug of clay was used to cover it. Followed by a layer of turf on top to stop the clay from drying out. Although there is no evidence for these clay plugs, they are the most logical top for the pits, and could have been ploughed out over the centuries to leave no traces of their existence. The grain on the edge of the pit had contact with the damp earth. This grain then began to germinate, as it germinated it used up all the remaining oxygen in the sealed pit, releasing carbon dioxide in exchange. When the oxygen is used the germinating grain died and formed a crust on the outer edge of the pit. The grain within was sealed in a vacuum and would keep for years without deteriorating. Some research into the use of these types of storage pits was undertaken by Dr Reynolds at Butser Ancient Farm (Reynolds 1976: 41), and it was found that the grain stored for a year in the pit was in a better condition, than grain stored in a modern electrically heated granary for the same length of time. 

However, in the following Spring when almost all the grain had been removed and used from the pits. The grain that was left would begin to germinate. Germinating wheat and Barley taste very pleasant very much like liquorice. I am sure this would have been a popular food during the Springtime. Unfortunately, it is only at the beginning stage of the germination that it tastes good. If left a week too long the germinating grain goes mouldy, and is wasted as a food. It is not unrealistic to assume that someone made an attempt to preserve this sprouting grain, by drying it in a kiln. Once baked the grain sprouts change to malt, a completely different and pleasant smelling food. This malted grain ground to a flour on a quern, and added to water makes a enjoyable malt drink. It also becomes an important food, as there are more vitamins and minerals in the malted grain than in its un-sprouted state. This is because sprouting grain releases the plants energy pack of sugars and starches in order to make a new plant. It is also not hard to imagine a refreshing tasty drink was made of the malted grain in large quantities, and as a consequence a surplus might have been left for another day. This would have started to ferment, and the additional possibilities of alcohol discovered. Connecting the growing of grains to the production of beer, and as a by-product yeasted bread, gives us a totally different conception of the staple food of prehistoric Europe. Coupled to this the comment by Plinny the Elder that the bread of the barbaric Celts was of finer quality than that of the civilised roman, demonstrates how an assumption can be depicted without looking at the evidence. The assumption being that because the Romans built roads and cities, they must as a consequence have had a finer diet than the barbarians they came to civilise.

The cultivation of these cereal crops however, was interdependent with the domestication of animals. 'Although cattle were fully domesticated at least by the sixth millennium B.C., they were not systematically used as traction animals until the later fourth millennium, when a specific technology was developed to make use of this. The most important applications were to the plough and the cart. The plough increased production and made economic the cultivation of a range of poor quality soils; it thus resulted in the colonisation of a wider area than had been possible under previous systems of cultivation. Both the ox-cart and the horse, as well as the pack-donkey, opened up the possibilities of bulk transport.'(Sherratt 1981 : 262) 

Animals were much more important to primitive societies than being just another meat source. Large numbers of female animals would have been needed so there would have been a working stock, and a breeding population of animals for these agricultural societies. Therefore the growing of cereal crops and the ensuing need for large herds of draught animals would have occupied increasing amounts of the time of the first farmers. More substantial dwellings and storage facilities would be needed as a consequence. In an article by Peter Rowley-Conwy he suggests that cultivating the land was not necessarily an inevitable advance for hunter-gatherer societies. 'We call hard but boring work 'the daily grind' a reference to milling cultivated grain, and current research is showing that you didn't take up farming unless you had to.'(Rowley-Conwy 1997: 7). However hard work though it might have been for the first farmers, the multitudinous benefits of the sedentary lifestyle and resultant development of new technologies such as ceramics and metallurgy, would have far outweighed the drudgery.