What a Loaf! It is hard to believe that humans have been eating bread for more than 10,000 years! Historians think the people in ancient Egypt were the first to bake bread, around 8000 B.C.E. This was just a flat bread made from water and crushed grain. It took another few thousand years for people to discover that adding yeast to the grain-and-water mixture made the bread soft and fluffy. As bread tasted better, people tried making more and more kinds. The people of ancient Greece turned bread-making into an art form: they knew how to make more than 80 kinds of bread! In ancient times, bread was so important, it was included in the graves of ancient Egyptian kings. During the Middle Ages, bread was very valuable. Bakers were like bankers,