Recently I started reading an amazing new series of books related to breads and baking. If you want to propel your knowledge of baking to the next level, consider checking out “Modernist Bread” by Nathan Myhrvold. He is truly an exceptional person with expertise in a wide range of topics from nuclear science to BBQ.
Discovering bread stamps
In the first parts of his book, Nathan talks about bread stamps. “What’s that?”, I thought. It turns out that in ancient times, some weighted device with symbols or letters was placed on a loaf of bread and then baked in the oven. After baking, an imprint of the stamp was left on the bread. The stamp could be made of stone, wood or metal.
“Oh my goodness!”, I thought. Could it be possible to buy ancient bread stamps of my own? It turns out, yes, it’s possible. So I did a fair amount of research and bought my first one at auction, the L-shaped artifact below. How awesome is that? A new collection was born.
In my pictures, I placed a penny to provide size reference. I also created an imprint on my kid’s Play-doh to see what it would have looked like on finished bread fifteen hundred years ago. Wondering what the lettering was, I consulted people knowledgeable in ancient Greek to find out more.
Hooked, I kept searching and found new examples of ancient bread stamps. Yes, they are real and mostly from the early Byzantine Empire, ca. 4th to 7th century CE.
Mine all came with certificates of authenticity from reputable antique dealers at auction. I could write more about why I’m confident they are the real deal, but suffice it to say, I’m sure they are.
Why were bread stamps used?
So what was the point of these stamps? There are a few possible reasons:
- In ancient times, no one had an oven in their own home like they do now, so people took their proofed dough to a communal oven for baking. Among everyone else’s bread, it was possible to find your own when stamped with your name.
- Bakers in ancient times didn’t have fancy plastic and colorful packaging to identify their bread. Stamps made it possible to take credit for their creation when it was sold at market.
- Some bakers were <gasp!> cheaters. They would sell a 1kg loaf of bread which was actually 0.75kg. Who’s to know? In some places, the stamp not only identified the correct weight it was supposed to be, but also the baker’s details. If someone thought they were cheated, authorities could verify and know whose head to put in the guillotine.
- Stamps were sometimes used to certify bread for ceremonies or other religious reasons. Recently, a stamp was discovered in Israel with a menorah on it. Most likely, it marked bread as kosher.
The stamp above is one of the larger ones in my collection. No one I spoke with knows what it says. The consensus is that it’s an abbreviation for something.
The stamp above is the largest and youngest in my collection. It seems to have religious significance with a cross as the first symbol. It may have been used to make ceremonial bread.
The stamp above is one of my favorites. Of all the stamps, this is the one most people couldn’t agree on. I had one who thought it wasn’t ancient at all, one who thought the 45-degree X was archaic language and others that looked at possible abbreviations. I initially thought it was shaped like a fish to emphasize Christian symbolism, but peculiarly, I am told it is in the shape of a slipper (shoe).
It was so much fun to speculate on what these stamps symbolized and to imagine the bakers that used them so long ago. Do you want to try a real bread stamp on your next bread? In Uzbekistan, they still make and use bread stamps. They are easily found on Amazon by searching “bread stamp”.
Lastly, a shout-out to folks at https://www.translatum.gr/ and http://latindiscussion.com/ who helped translate and provide insight on my stamps. Thank you!
Happy stamping!
Were those type stamps replaced by paper stamps that I recall on Jewish Rye loaves?
I’ve never seen paper stamps on Jewish Rye bread. Do you have a link to an image of one? Sounds interesting.
Don’t have a site or copy of stamp. I’m relying on my age (86) and memory. Still trying to locate a picture of one.
Neat subject. Makes sense to use an indentifer in a communal oven, much like branding cattle. I love bread, and bread history.
Hey Mike, I found your article during my research for bread stamps. Thank you I found it interesting and – inspiriting. You owe interesting examples in your collection – the bronze matrix with an dolphin looks familiar to me. Dolphin was important symbolic figure in Ancient Greece culture, that had connection to god Apollo variation – Dolphinos, especially for Milet polis and it’s colonies. In contemporary Ukraine, on the coast of Black Sea there was an colony Olbia (Greek “the Lucky One”), where all visual culture and early monetary system (IX-V centuries b.C.) was based on dolphins cast from bronze.… Read more »
Great information Luc and thanks for taking the time to write. I am very interested in finding out more about these stamps. Since I wrote this article, I got 2 more stamps but they are more typical for the Byzantine period. If you have connections to an archeologist that may know more, please do send him the pictures. If you need more detailed pictures from more angles, I am happy to give you that too. I would love to learn more about it.
18th-century bakers in Great Britain and colonies also had to mark their bread by law with the type of bread and their initials. I haven’t seen any examples but I am guessing it was done the same way.
Interesting!