Overview
- The Karaman Governorship announced the Topraktepe discovery on Oct. 8, reporting five charred breads from ancient Eirenopolis in south-central Turkey.
- One loaf bears a faint image of Jesus depicted as a sower beneath a Greek inscription that reads, "With gratitude to the Blessed Jesus."
- The other four loaves display Christian symbols reported to include the Maltese cross.
- Officials date the breads to the 7th–8th centuries and attribute their preservation to carbonization, calling them among the best-preserved examples identified in Anatolia.
- Specialists suggest the loaves may be communion bread, a hypothesis the team plans to probe through chemical and botanical analyses and continued searches for a possible worship site.