Beer In History

[samtyr]

I found this link and thought I'd share it here. Maybe someone can use it for reference.

www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/124099064.html

The Beer Archaeologist
By analyzing ancient pottery, Patrick McGovern is resurrecting the libations that fueled civilization

By Abigail Tucker


Read more: www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Beer-Archaeologist.html#ixzz1QEPI8odm

[kymahalei]

This is fascinating! I love the precision of the descriptions and the vast ages that it recollects. Brews in my stories will never be the same. Thank you so much for sharing this, samtyr!

[elfscribe]

Thanks for posting that Samtyr. I read a story about this a while back I think in the Pennsylvanian Gazette. I love them trying to recreate the ancient formulas. There's a theory that brewing beer rather than making bread is the reason for cultivation of wheat and barley, that ultimately led to civilization. Although I'm more of a wine aficionado, it makes sense to me.

[elleth]

Jun 24, 2011 16:18:11 GMT -6 kymahalei said:

Brews in my stories will never be the same. Thank you so much for sharing this, samtyr!

I couldn't agree more! Not being much of an alcohol afficionado unless for cooking, wine and beer only ever played cursory roles even in stories that should grant them more significance... that's probably going to change now.

[pandemonium]

Very interesting article, Samtyr! Thanks so much for sharing it.

Maybe I skimmed over it and missed it, but I didn't see anything in the article about the fact that it was often safer for these early populations of humans in villages, towns and cities to drink beer and wine. Once humans congregated into more or less permanent habitations, they tended to contaminate their water supply with their waste. Hence, dysentery and cholera could (and did) wipe out significant chunks of the population. In the West, brewing and wine-making were means of treating water in a very real sense, killing off harmful bugs. Beer was much safer to drink than water. This was less critical in the East, where boiling water for tea took precedent.

With regard to the effects of alcohol and other substances on the brain, which is touched upon in the article, Daniel Lord Smail's (prof. at Harvard) book On Deep History and the Brain takes a look at this in depth. Smail examines how the "pursuit of psychotropy" affected our history and behaviors.

[elleth]

Jun 25, 2011 15:00:49 GMT -6 pandemonium said:

Beer was much safer to drink than water. This was less critical in the East, where boiling water for tea took precedent.

There also are theories involving the boiling of water for teas (or tisanes where tea hadn't been introduced) that initially had nothing to do with sanitary reasons. Some chronicles from Frisia, where water frequently wasn't very palatable (either brackish due to the promiximity of the coast or tasting of peat from the bogs further inland), suggest that herbal additives were used to change the taste, and of course the water needed to be hot for that to work. (Which isn't saying that Frisians did not consume beer - they did in large quantities. This was just an addition from my side. Local history is fun.)

It's also, according to a documentary I saw recently, the reason why us Frisians are so fond of tea and drink about three times the average amount of tea/capita/year as the rest of Germany, and even top the British by 300 grams or so. ;D

[eta: Something is off with that sentence, isn't it?]

/digression

[sanna]

Thanks, Samtyr! That looks like a fascinating read.

What really interest me are the social aspects iin drinking and making beer. Like while everyone drank it, it wasn't the rich and powerful who had to content the bog myrtle ale (at least before hops were found), and when brewing was a chore done at home for the family it was distinctly women's job but as soon as it became an industry men took over.

Also, I just like beer.

[DrummerWench]

We get Smithsonian Mag, so I read the article w/ extreme interest; I am not much of a beer drinker (that would be wine for me), but find things of this sort utterly fascinating! I have been aware for some time that alcoholic beverages of one sort or another were the drink of choice due to water safety--ale for breakfast and for babies was routine.

I would be quite entertained if I could taste some of the "recreations"; unfortunately am unlikely to make it to the Dogfish Head pub in Delaware any time soon.

[elleth]

I just happened across another article that yields some insight about the health effects of ancient Nubian and Egyptian beer:

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_4_109/ai_62324477/

Ancient Nubians and Egyptians had a way with antibiotics.

Some twenty years ago, Debra Martin placed a bit of bone from a mummy under a microscope and discovered that a person who lived in Nubia (northern Sudan) during the fourth century A.D. had apparently ingested tetracycline, a broad-spectrum antibiotic that entered the arsenal of modern medicine only in the 1950s.

[kymahalei]

Thanks, Elleth. A most interesting read. The fact that the Egyptians used bread to make beer, and that beer was so ubiquitous gets my imagination going. I'm not a beer drinker, and the thought of downing an opaque mixture full of nutrients is not very appealing, but it was standard fare for much of the ancient world.