Ancient Egyptian elites drank thick porridge-like beer 5,800 years ago, study ...

Ancient Egyptian elites drank thick porridge-like beer 5,800 years ago, study ...
Ancient Egyptian elites drank thick porridge-like beer 5,800 years ago, study ...

Ancient Egyptian elites drank thick porridge-like beer around 5,800 years ago, a new study suggests. 

Researchers analysed fragments of pottery found at Hierakonpolis, an ancient city and current archaeological site in southern Egypt.  

They detected beer residues in what were originally five straw-coloured jars with flat bases, likely used for transporting beer in bulk. 

Four beaker-shaped vessels of fine clay coated with black-topped slip also revealed beer residues, suggesting their use for drinking and serving. 

Beer was not simply a staple food for the living, but 'a symbol of status and authority', important in elite feasting and burial rituals 'in this life and the next'.   

It would have been 'a thick porridge' – likely cloudy and sweet with a low alcoholic content – that was mostly made from wheat, barley and grass. 

Complete vessels from Hierakonpolis show that most of these straw-tempered beer jars would have been too heavy to manipulate easily for direct drinking. Thus, as the new analysis of four black-topped sherds suggests, the contents may have been decanted into the smaller and finer beakers for consumption

Complete vessels from Hierakonpolis show that most of these straw-tempered beer jars would have been too heavy to manipulate easily for direct drinking. Thus, as the new analysis of four black-topped sherds suggests, the contents may have been decanted into the smaller and finer beakers for consumption

Researchers analysed fragments of pottery found at Hierakonpolis, an archaeological site in southern Egypt

Researchers analysed fragments of pottery found at Hierakonpolis, an archaeological site in southern Egypt

THE ANCIENT HUB OF HIERAKONPOLIS

Hierakonpolis is a major site for the study of Egypt’s predynastic and early dynastic periods.

The vast, multi-component site was once a large city predating the pyramids.

It included Egypt’s earliest large scale breweries and food processing installations, a ceremonial centre, and a cemetery revealing evidence for early mummification.

Source: ARCE 

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More than a dozen ancient brewery sites have been identified so far at Hierakonpolis, although full details of recipes are 'a matter of continuing research'. 

Beer produced at one of the Hierakonpolis breweries supplied the ritual activities in a nearby elite cemetery, the researchers say. 

The new study was led by Jiajing Wang, an archaeologist at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire. 

'The beer was probably like a thick porridge, very different from the IPAs [India pale ales] we drink today,' Wang told New Scientist

'Beer was likely a staple food consumed by everyone and, at the same time, it was also ritually consumed on special occasions.' 

Wang and colleagues used a method called microfossil residue analysis on 33 ceramic vessel fragments from the site of Hierakonpolis. 

The fragments date back to between 3800 and 3600 BC, about 600 years before the time of the first Egyptian pharaoh, thought by academics to be Narmer.   

This limestone head is thought by the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London to be Narmer, the first Egyptian pharaoh

This limestone head is thought by the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London to be Narmer, the first Egyptian pharaoh

PEOPLE ATE BEER AND BLUE CHEESE 2,700 YEARS AGO 

Ancient human faeces unearthed from a mine in central Austria has provided evidence that people drank beer and ate blue cheese some 2,700 years ago.

Preserved in salt mines, the fossil samples were analysed by experts led from the Eurac Research Institute for Mummy Studies.

The researchers found that the 'palaeofaeces' contained traces of two fungal species which are known to be used in brewing and the manufacture of blue cheese.

Read more: Ancient faeces samples recovered from a mine in Austria

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Narmer is considered to be founder of the First Dynasty, and in turn the first king of a unified

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