The earliest archaeological evidence for flour, which was probably processed into an unleavened bread, dates to the Upper Paleolithic in Europe, around 30,000 years ago. During this period of human history, cereals constituted just one of many food sources exploited by hunting and gathering; palaeolithic European diets were based mainly on animal proteins and fats. Cereals and bread became a staple food during the Neolithic, around 10,000 years ago, when wheat and barley were among the first plants to be domesticated in the Fertile Crescent. Wheat-based agriculture spread from Southwest Asia to Europe, North Africa and the Indian Subcontinent. In other parts of the world cereals such as rice (East Asia), maize (the Americas) and sorghum (sub-Saharan Africa), which are also sometimes made into bread, were independently domesticated and formed the basis of alternative agricultural systems.
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