Beer is almost as old as civilization itself. It is mentioned in Sumerian texts that date back more than 5,000 years ago. Beginning in the 1950s, scientists debated the notion that beer, not bread, was actually the start of the development for agriculture.

Almost every culture around the world has invented its own concotion of beer. While beer is mostly a social drink these days, it used to be a part of everyday meals, brewed at home in early times. And as society would become more advanced, so did the production of beer in places like South Africa and China, as it eventually became a business in its own.

Ancient brewing is not exactly the easiest thing to prove or find any physical evidence for. With most cultures, home beer brewing required only the basic of ingredients, such as a fire, cooking vessels, and some jars. These are all materials that can be used anywhere else. Jars and cooking vessels found near a kiln could have been for any other cooking purpose, or maybe to store different foods and liquids.
Not even the hardest working archaeologists have found conclusive evidence. One of the oldest breweries was found in southern Egypt and dates back to over 5,000 years ago. Teams discovered several vats, all well-heated and containing some sort of leftover cereal-like substance, which indicate that these were used for brewing.

And over at central Egypt, along the Nile river, archaeologists found yet another brewery from ancient times. The site was located in what is thought to be the Sun Temple, where a king’s wife was buried. As the teams soon found out, cereal was processed in some of the rooms at this site. However, there is a chance that it may have been a bakery, as the rooms also contained grains and ancient ovens.
The Romans had their own brewing experiments too, as archaeologists discovered recently. Several preserved tablets show evidence that back in 100 AD, Romans were brewing beer as indicated in said tablets.

The most conclusive way of finding out whether a brewery existed or not would be to search for chemical evidence, but that is practically impossible. Alcohol is much too delicate to last for centuries, as any cereal based residue found could have come from baking just as easily as from brewing.

As people continue exploring the world’s ancient civilizations, there will be more so-called discoveries proving the existence of ancient beer. But they will never be 100% conclusive unless some form of physical evidence is found. If there were physical evidence, it would be really different indeed.

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