By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Archaeologists have uncovered a trove of 1,300-year-old bread loaves that brings one of the Bible’s most famous verses to life.
At Topraktepe, the site of ancient Eirenopolis in Turkey, researchers discovered five carbonized loaves, one bearing a portrait of Jesus and an ancient Greek inscription reading, ‘With our thanks to Blessed Jesus.’
The work, conducted under the direction of the Karaman Museum Directorate, made it possible to recover these fragile organic remains thanks to a natural carbonization process.
Exposure to fire under specific conditions of temperature and lack of oxygen preserved the loaves with exceptional detail, described by experts as the best-documented examples of their kind in all of Anatolia.
The discovery vividly brings John 6:35 to life, the verse where Jesus declares, ‘I am the bread of life.’
For the people of Eirenopolis, these loaves were not mere food, but were sacred objects, ritually treated as representations of Christ himself.
Unlike the traditional Pantocrator images, the Topraktepe loaf shows Jesus as a sower, linking faith to daily labor and the hope of a bountiful harvest.
The other four loaves feature cross-shaped imprints, further suggesting they were used in early Christian rituals as Eucharistic or communion bread.