Did beer launch civilizations?
Did beer brewing launch civilization turning hunters andgatherers into farmers? Some researchers argue that it was not thediscovery of processing grain for food, but the intoxicating effectof beer that made humans build settlements, domesticate animals,and cultivate soil 7.000 years ago.
Peter Damerow from the Max Planck Institute for the History ofScience conducted
Evidence does not clarify how similar the Sumerians “kaš” (beer)was to what we understand nowadays under this popular beverage. Itmight not even have contained alcohol.
Sources suggest though that “Sumerian beer was consumed insimilar social contexts as we drink our modern beer consumed intaverns which were places of amusement, of prostitution, and ofcrime”.
Best reference for brewing process itself is the Hymn toNinkasi. The latter was a Sumerian goddess who was worshipped in aceremony likely involving the consumption of plenty of kaš.
Ninkasi, you are the one who handles dough (and) … with abig shovel,
Mixing, in a pit, the bappir with sweet aromatics
Ninkasi, you are the one who bakes the bappir in the bigoven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grain.
Ninkasi, you are the one who waters the earth-coveredmalt,
The noble dogs guard (it even) from the potentates.
Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks the malt in ajar,
The waves rise, the waves fall.
Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads the cooked mash onlarge reed mats,
Coolness overcomes …
Ninkasi, you are the one who holds with both hands the greatsweetwort,
Brewing (it) with honey (and) wine.
Ninkasi, [you …] the sweetwort to the vessel.
The fermenting vat, which makes a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on (top of) a large collectorvat.
Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the filtered beer ofthe collector vat,
It is (like) the onrush of the Tigris and theEuphrates.
