Egyptian Beer Brewing: A Legacy Of Ancient Times Also Found In Israel

MessageToEagle.com – For many centuries, beer was primary and major food product for Egyptians and according to archaeological evidence found in ancient Egyptian tombs, the beer tradition goes back even further into the history of Egypt.

The beer was a drink that despite the strict hierarchy of Egyptian society, was drunk by the representatives of all the classes, also in other locations outside Egypt.

The ceramic shards found at the site date to the Bronze Age and are believed to have been used in the brewing of the grain based alcoholic beverage,’ informs The Jerusalem Post.
Fragments of ancient pottery vessels used to prepare beer, unearthed during recent salvage excavations in downtown Tel Aviv, reveal that the city’s reputed party atmosphere is thousands of years old, the Antiquities Authority announced Sunday.

Moreover, according to the authority, the excavations, conducted prior to the construction of office buildings by the Rubinstein company, provide evidence indicating the presence of an ancient Egyptian population from more than 5,000 years ago.

“We found 17 pits in the excavations, which were used to store agricultural produce in the Early Bronze Age [3500-3000-BCE],” said Diego Barkan, director of the authority’s excavation.
“Among the hundreds of pottery sherds that characterize the local culture, a number of fragments of large ceramic basins were discovered that were made in an Egyptian tradition, and were used to prepare beer… The vessels were manufactured with straw temper, or some other organic material in order to strengthen them, a method not customary in the local pottery industry,” he continued.

Barkan added that similar vessels were found in an Egyptian administrative building that was excavated in southern Israel’s Ein Habesor moshav.
“Until now, we were only aware of an Egyptian presence in the northern Negev and southern coastal plain, whereby the northernmost point of Egyptian occupation occurred in Azor,” Barkan explained.

Barkan said that the remnants represent the northernmost evidence ever obtained of an Egyptian presence in the Early Bronze Age.

See also:

Oldest Evidence Of Beer Was Found On A Sumerian Tablet In Mesopotamia

“Now we know that they also appreciated what the Tel Aviv region had to offer, and that they too knew how to enjoy a glass of beer, just as Tel Avivians do today.”
According to the archeologist, beer – made from a mixture of barley and water that was partially baked and then left to ferment in the sun – was the “national drink of Egypt” in ancient times, and was bought and sold like other basic commodities, such as bread.

It was also consumed by the entire population, regardless of age, gender or status.

Excavations conducted in Egypt’s delta region uncovered breweries that indicate beer was already being produced in the mid-4th millennium BC, according to Barkan.

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