We know from the pictographic history that the people in ancient Egypt were fond of beer and bread. Fortunately, they sent samples of these food items along with some of their more esteemed citizens to sustain them in the afterlife. Also, samples were available from rubbish heaps of ancient villages, allowing for the comparison of funerary goods with everyday foods. Additional luck was that the dry conditions have kept some samples from deteriorating even after thousands of years. Whereas they did leave us samples, they didn't leave recipes. There have been many theories about how they brewed and baked in ancient Egypt, but proof was lacking. Recently, Delwen Samuel of Cambridge University used optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to determine how the ancient Egyptians brewed beer and baked bread.
A New Look at Old Beer and Bread