ANKARA: Turkey is a country where archaeological evidence shows that flour milling first started roughly 12,000 years ago (10.000 BC), and today it is the global leader in flour exports.
Gobeklitepe, Sanliurfa, Turkey, is the site of the archeological discovery that could profoundly change the understanding of a crucial stage in the development of human society. The remains of fermented grains and wheat seeds contained in the dishes excavated from the ruins reveal that agriculture was carried out in a conscious manner. One of the biggest indicators of grinding wheat prior to consumption is the mid-drilled round stones shaped as the stone hand mills.
Wheat flour mills are present in almost all provinces of Turkey, with Konya (Central Anatolia) having the largest number of plants. Currently, 707 of 1,200 flour mills in Turkey are active.