Archaeologists unearth what could be world’s oldest beer factory
CAIRO: A high-production brewery believed to be more than 5,000 years old has been uncovered by a team of archaeologists at a funerary site in southern Egypt, the tourism ministry said.
The site containing several “units” consisting of about 40 earthenware pots arranged in two rows was uncovered at North Abydos, Sohag, by a joint Egyptian-american team, the ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page on Saturday.
The brewery likely dates back to the era of King Narmer, it quoted the secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziry, as saying, adding it believed the find to “be the oldest high-production brewery in the world.”
Narmer, who ruled more than 5,000 years ago, founded the First Dynasty and unified Upper and Lower Egypt. British archaeologists first discovered the existence of the brewery at the beginning of the 20th century but its location was never precisely determined, the statement said. The joint Egyptian-american team “was able to re-locate and uncover its contents”, it said.
According to Waziry, the brewery consisted of eight large areas which were used as “units for beer production”.
Each sector contained about 40 earthenware pots arranged in two rows. A mixture of grains and water used for beer production was heated in the vats, with each basin “held in place by levers made of clay placed vertically in the form of rings”.
Archaeologist Matthew Adams of New York University, who heads the joint mission with Deborah Vischak of Princeton University, said studies have shown that beer was produced at a large scale, with about 22,400 litres made at a time.
The brewery “may have been built in this place specifically to supply the royal rituals that were taking place inside the funeral facilities of the kings of Egypt”, he was quoted as saying. “Evidence for the use of beer in sacrificial rites was found during excavations in these facilities.”