The world's first biscuit factory from Roman times

The world's oldest biscuit factory has been discovered in southern France . The workshop, also known as the Barbegal complex of Roman times, consisted of sewers and watermills that were used to produce large quantities of junk food for oceanic sailors in the second century.

The large-scale complex consists of a large watermill and a 60km stretch of sewer. The flow of water through the wheel will start a system of grainmills into flour, which will then be transported by water to nearby Roman ports.

In the past, researchers believed that only medieval millmills like Barbegal were used on an industrial scale. Since its first discovery in 1937 to date, the millstone is arguably the world's oldest industrial complex with the capacity to serve 12,500 people annually. However, the conjecture of scientists that the Barbegal factory only serves the neighboring city is that Arelate has proved the opposite. Analysis of the limestone samples found in the complex showed that the wooden wheels started the mill stopped in late summer and fall, while Arelate's wheat flour demand lasted for the whole year.

Complex wheel structure at Roman biscuit factory.(Photo: Scientific Advances).

The pieces of limestone formed during the spinning wheel were in contact with water and clung to it and were the only trace left of the mill system (wooden and decayed centuries ago). Results of chemical composition analysis showed that limestone plaques formed only in certain periods of the year, leading to the ability of millmills to only product in the late summer and fall. Besides, the preservation time of wheat flour is quite short, so the factory must produce continuously in the new year to be sufficient for Arelate. Instead, the mill can be used to serve the seasonally sea voyages because the Roman boat does not depart through the Mediterranean Sea in the winter to avoid storms.

Researchers believe that the flour produced in Barbegal is transferred to neighboring ports like Arles and Fossae Marianae and then used to make 'ship biscuits ' or dry biscuits. These cakes have very simple ingredients and ingredients, including flour, water and sometimes added salt. Before canned food was born, these cookies were very popular among sailors because they could be left out weekly and not broken.

The crystal structure of the limestone fragments that reveal the formation are dark areas with fast flowing water, which also means that the water wheels have been placed in small tents instead of outdoors. The structure arranged 16 water wheels in two rows connected along the steep hill for the millmills in Barbegal, different from those in Egypt or China. The 60km long sewer system is located near Arelate and the millmills receive more than half of the 45 million liters of water flowing through the mills every day.

Scientists believe there are still many Roman mill systems that have been built in Europe, but because most use wood materials to decompose over time, no location has been discovered yet.