I have always, always wondered about how bread and butter got invented, but never really discussed it with anyone, it just remained this magical, impossible problem that archaeology forgot, that is until the weekend when I found out the ANSWER!  There is an answer.
Bread

Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods, dating back to the Neolithic era.  The first breads produced were probably cooked versions of a grain-paste, made from ground cereal grains and water, and may have been developed by accidental cooking or deliberate experimentation with water and grain flour. Descendants of these early breads are still commonly made from various grains worldwide, including the Mexican tortilla, Indian chapatis, rotis and naans, Scottish oatcakes, (my dad loves these, I prefer jocobs).
The development of leavened bread can probably also be traced to prehistoric times. Yeast spores occur everywhere, including the surface of cereal grains, so any dough left to rest will become naturally leavened.
There were multiple sources of leavening available for early bread. Airborne yeasts could be harnessed by leaving uncooked dough exposed to air for some time before cooking. Pliny the Elder reported that the Gauls and Iberians used the foam skimmed from beer to produce “a lighter kind of bread than other peoples.”  The most common source of leavening however was to retain a piece of dough from the previous day to utilize as a form of sourdough starter.
Butter
Since even accidental agitation can turn cream into butter, it is likely that the invention of butter goes back to the earliest days of dairying, perhaps in the Mesopotamian area between 9000 and 8000 BCE. The earliest butter would have been from sheep or goat’s milk; cattle are not thought to have been domesticated for another thousand years or so. An ancient method of butter making, still used today in some parts of Africa and the Near East, uses a goat skin is half filled with milk, which is then inflated with air and sealed. It is then hung with ropes on a tripod of sticks and rocked to and fro until the butter is formed.
Butter was certainly known in the classical Mediterranean civilizations, but it does not seem to have been a common food, especially in Ancient Greece or Rome. In the warm Mediterranean climate, unclarified butter would spoil very quickly— unlike cheese, it was not a practical method of preserving the benefits of milk. The people of ancient Greece and Rome seemed to consider butter a food fit more for the northern barbarians. A play by the Greek comic poet Anaxandrides refers to Thracians as, “butter-eaters”. In Natural History Pliny the Elder calls butter “the most delicate of food among barbarous nations”, and goes on to describe its medicinal properties.  It certainly makes me feel better, butter.

Thank you, happenstance, for accidental yeast spores and bumpy camel rides with milky refreshments.

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