Open in app

Sign in

Write

Sign in

[Beer Lecture] Chapter 3: At the Dawn of Civilization

Historical period: from the 10th millennium BCE to the 2nd century CE
Scene of action: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, the Mediterranean

Sergey Konstantinov
9 min readAug 7, 2022

This is the first chapter of the Section I of the book on beer and brewing history I’ve been writing. I’ve actually advanced to Chapter 14, but then noticed that I somehow forgot to publish first three chapter. So, some #latergram.

The Sumerians are widely regarded as the first civilization in human history. It was likely Sumerians who invented writing. And — what a coincidence! — they were also huge beer lovers. In the oldest clay tablets, dated 30–32 centuries BCE, beer is already mentioned as a staple product, manufacturing of which was controlled by the state[1].

Sumerians loved beer so much that they have a separate beer goddess: Ninkasi. ‘A Hymn to Ninkasi’[2], dedicated to the goddess, is itself an allegorical beer recipe, according to scholars[3]. The Hymn was written down circa 18th century BCE, but researchers suggest it’s much older than that[4]. Apart from the Hymn, beer is also mentioned in one of the oldest Sumerian legends, ‘Inana and Enki’[5].

There are many surviving images of people drinking beer (supposedly) from mugs or large vessels by the means of tubes[6]. Furthermore, it’s the oldest known depiction of cocktail straws[7], so it’s quite probable they were invented specifically to drink beer.

Two sitting figures drinking from vessels by means of straw. 2600–2350 BCE. Image Credit: The University of Chicago

Babylonians, Akkadians, Ancient Egyptians — all these peoples adopted a taste for beer from Sumerians[8]. In the oldest of surviving epics, namely ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’, beer is mentioned in a very peculiar aspect. According to the myth, goddess Aruru created a ‘wild man’ Enkidu to confront Gilgamesh. But then Shamhat, a sacred temple prostitute, seduces Enkidu and civilizes him. To do so, she makes him eat bread and drink beer: the symbols of civilization, unknown to wild men[9].

Then, beer is mentioned in the Epic once more[10]: goddess Siduri advises Gilgamesh to abolish his quest of seeking the meaning of life, and just enjoy small wonders — like beer. This character, Siduri, is considered to be the first written mention of ‘alewife’, e.g. a female brewer — bartender — tavern keeper[11].

One of the first codes of law in human history, the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, refers to beer four times[12]:

  • §108: if a tavern keeper pours short of the paid amount of beer (or refuses to take grain as a payment), then she shall be drowned to death;
  • §109: if a tavern keeper fails to report the powers about the planned coup which was discussed in her tavern, she shall be put to death (a method of which remains unspecified);
  • §110: if a ‘Sister of God’ (e.g. the high priestess) runs a tavern or just enters one to drink beer, then, as you should have guessed, she shall be executed;
  • §110: if a tavern keeper donates sixty ka of beer in the time of famine, then she shall be awarded fifty ka of grain afterward.

Let us point out that the Code refers to tavern keepers as females, and all the corresponding goddesses and legendary characters are females either. From the beginning of civilization up to the industrial revolution preparation of alcoholic beverages as a whole, and brewing beer in particular, was predominantly women’s job[13], with an exception of Christian male monasteries[14]. It appears that brewing and baking were not decoupled from each other, it was essentially the same occupation.

Model bakery and brewery from the tomb of Meketre, an Egyptian noble, chancellor to Pharaoh Mentuhotep II and several of his successors. Circa 1981–1975 BCE. Image Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Ancient Mesopotamia, beer was something like a currency[15]. Daily workers (builders of the Giza pyramids, in particular) were paid in beer — something like 4–5 liters per person per day[16].

How to Try

The distinguished researcher of ancient civilizations’ cuisine, prof. Patrick McGovern, managed to find traces of Egyptian beer and recreate it[17]. In collaboration with Dogfish Head Brewery the ‘Midas Touch’ beer, based on the recipe, was prepared. This is not the only attempt: another brewer, Fritz Maytag (of whom we will tell much more later) considers the procedure described in ‘A Hymn to Ninkasi’ so obvious that he brewed beer based on it and presented it at the annual meeting of American Homebrewers Association in 1991. Maytag hasn’t released it commercially, since the technology doesn’t preclude using preserving agents; other brewers are not so picky. Today, beers brewed according to ancient recipes (Sumerian, Egyptian, Celtic, Etruscan, etc.) are available in numbers. The most famous examples are:

  • abovementioned Dogfish Head Midas Touch;
  • Williams Bros. Fraoch, possibly the most widespread brand based on an ancient Celtic recipe (might be found as a part of the ‘Historical Ales of Scotland’ set);
  • Thornbridge Hall Bracia, analogous Celtic beer from the neighboring brewery;
  • another ale prepared by McGovern & Dogfish Head, Kvasir (recreated using the remains of 15th century BCE beer found on the territory of nowadays Denmark);
  • Posca Rustica by Brasserie Dupont, based on 1st century CE Roman recipe;
  • Birra del Borgo Etrusca, after Etruscans.

There is no specific name for such ‘elder’ beer; look into ‘Ancient Herbed Beer’ and ‘Traditional’ categories.

Nevertheless, we consider these reconstructions being a bit deceiving; in many cases, just a wild fantasy on historical themes. Let us name three reasons which make us think so.

Let’s start with the Sumerians. The situation there looks paradoxical: we are well aware of many kinds of Sumerian beer (clay tablets mention ‘Gold’, ‘Dark’, ‘Sweet Dark’, ‘Red’, and other types), and we knew all ingredients of these beverages. But have totally no idea what these ingredients actually were, and how these beers tasted[18].

Writing (cuneiforms on clay tablets) was expensive, so it was used for important things, like every kind of administrative order: deliver these amounts of those ingredients from point A to point B to make that amount of beer[19]. It went without saying that the receiver totally knew how she would brew the requested beverage, so nothing like precise recipes or brewery blueprints survived[20].

Even basic facts are actually a set of assumptions. There are two main ingredients mentioned in all listings: bappir and munu. The former probably means barley bread (though it’s measured in volume units, like something which might be poured), the latter should be barley malt[21]. That’s actually all we know more or less reliably.

The oldest surviving beer recipe was written down by an Egyptian alchemist Zosimus in the 4th century CE (which is several thousand years after the heyday of ancient brewing), and, possibly, not by Zosimus himself, but by an unknown later scribe. The recipe prescribes soaking then drying barley, preparing a half-baked bread from it, soaking it again and leaving liquids to ferment[22]. No other details like amounts and types of ingredients or further actions are provided. It’s also vexing that Zosimus recipe contradicts archeological evidence, so considering it genuine is a bit of an overstatement[23]. That’s the first reason why authentic beer reconstructions are not possible.

Of course, we can still brew some beer based on this recipe or archeological findings. But there are also second and third reasons.

Modern beer is basically brewed using four components: grain, water, yeast, and hops. As we will explain in the next chapters, none of these ingredients existed before the High Middle Ages. Yeast was strictly airborne, e.g. ‘wild’, and we don’t know the exact species. Cereals that were prevalent in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, namely emmer, spelt, and einkorn, were half-domesticated ancestors of modern wheat; ancient barley was a distant relative to modern barley either. Beer was sweetened and spiced with some flavor additives which we know nothing of. Finally, water in Mesopotamia was a rare commodity being very far from crystal clarity. Some reenactors choose similar (as they think) modern ingredients; some of them try authentic cereals. But no attempt to precisely reconstruct all four components has ever been made, as far as we know[24].

And there is also a third reason, probably more important than the two previous ones. For industrial beer production, the technical parameters must be controlled with extreme precision, right up to degrees and per mills. Until the 18th century when the thermometer and the hydrometer were invented, brewer’s control over the processes of mashing, cooling, and fermenting was quite limited. Many factors, like weather or microorganisms, were totally out of their control. So ancient beer hasn’t had ‘a taste’: each batch brewed under some specific conditions had its own specific taste. Master brewers were probably able to produce the more or less consistent product; less skilled ones were preparing totally unique beverages each time, but constantly sour and cloudy. We can only agree that, according to the big numbers law, sometimes they must have brewed something close to a liquid we have just filled our glass with.

The Decline of Ancient Beer

During the Bronze Age, beer was the most common beverage for almost every civilization, from the Sumerians to the Chinese. But in the 1st millennium BCE, the situation changed dramatically.

In China, supposedly under the rule of the Shang dynasty, circa 15–16th century BCE, a new method of producing alcoholic beverages from rice was discovered. A complex mixture of molds, yeast, and bacteria, known as ‘qū’ (麴 in traditional Chinese), cultured on a starch-rich substrate, is able to convert cereal starches to alcohol directly. The result is a rather strong beverage containing 8 to 20 percent alcohol by volume (ABV). Many traditional Eastern alcoholic beverages, such as Chinese ‘rice wine’ huangjiu, Korean and Japanese sake and shochu, are produced using qū[25]. This technology superseded beer brewing in the East, but for obvious reasons (the secrecy and lack of rice) were not adopted in the West.

But the West — Ancient Greece and, later, Ancient Rome — had their own technological know-how: grape wine. Archeological evidence indicates that it was already produced in 6–7 millennium BCE on the territory of nowadays Georgia (and probably in China either), but it was Phoenicians who spread the taste for wine through all the Mediterranean[26].

Some scholars believe that late Bronze Age Greeks (Mycenaeans) inherited brewing traditions from their Minoan predecessors, and therefore drank beer or at least tolerated beer; maybe Dionysius was a god of beer and mead as well as wine[27]. However, starting from the 10th century BCE beer completely disappears from the Greeks’ diet and is mentioned in written sources as a ‘foreign beverage’ — of Thracians, Phrygians, or Egyptians. To Ancient Greeks beer was a beverage of northern ‘barbarians’ Thracians and Peons[28]. In the 5th century BCE, Aeschylus in his plays counterposes ‘Dionysius beverage’ (e.g. wine) against ‘Thracian beverage’ (e.g. beer). Many other Greek dramatists had started to despise beer after Aeschylus[29]. Greeks believed that beer as a result of ‘decay’ of grain, in turn, makes humans decay, and also effeminates men. This opinion, voiced by Theophrastus[30], is to be repeated constantly in the Ancient Greek and Roman literature. Beer was associated with excessive alcohol consumption attributed to Scythians and Thracians, while Greeks themselves were (of course!) considered inherently modest and temperate.

As a result, with the growth of Ancient Greece then Ancient Rome’s influence, beer was universally dislodged[31]. Peoples living on the territory of nowadays France, Spain, Northern Italy, Germany had been drinking beer for millennia before wine and viniculture arrived on their soil[32], but during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, Romans progressively defeated all beer-drinking nations: Celtiberians, Gaul, Carthaginians, Ligurians, Egyptians. Even Celts started to prefer wine over beer under Roman influence[33]. Wine prominence was also enforced by the swiftly spreading Christianism, which gave it a very special position in its rituals and sacred books. At the beginning of the Common Era, the only keepers of beer tradition in the world were the ‘barbarians’ on the outskirts of the Roman Empire.

References

Beer
Beer History
Brewing
History Of Brewing
Beer Lecture

--

--

Sergey Konstantinov

Written by Sergey Konstantinov

147 Followers

The API Guy

Help

Status

About

Careers

Blog

Privacy

Terms

Text to speech

Teams