Credit: Viktor Trifonov
Credit: Viktor Trifonov
Posted on 01/20/2022 9:25:28 AM PST by BenLurkin
A set of lengthy silver and gold tubes dug up from a famous grave in the the Caucuses have been found to represent the oldest surviving drinking straws, with the scientists behind the discovery believing they were used for communal beer consumption. The specimens are 5,000 years old and help deepen our understanding of drinking culture in ancient hierarchical societies.
The set of eight tubes was unearthed back in 1987 in the Maikop Kurgan burial mound, a famous grave for Bronze Age elites in the Northern Caucasus. Researchers had since concluded the meter-plus-long tubes to be poles for a canopy, or, with bull figurines featuring on some, scepters. Researchers at the Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences decided to dig a little further into their history, hoping to flesh out the details around their use.
"A turning point was the discovery of the barley starch granules in the residue from the inner surface of one of the straws," said lead author Dr. Viktor Trifonov. "This provided direct material evidence of the tubes from the Maikop Kurgan being used for drinking."
The presence of these granules suggests the straws were used for drinking beer, which ties in with other evidence of such practices among the early Mesopotamian civilization of Sumeria from the third millennium BCE, hundreds of kilometers away. Artwork from this era shows people gathering around communal vessels using multiple long straws, which feature metal strainers to filter out impurities in ancient beer.
These metal strainers were also discovered in the Maikop straws, along with some other key similarities.
Seals from the fifth and fourth millennium BCE in Iran and Iraq show people using straws to drink from communal vessels, suggesting the practice stretches even further back in history.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
ping
could just as easily be proof that ancient cultures got high on cocaine
after all, they clearly did not have $100 bills.
Credit: Viktor Trifonov
I guess if they had found cocaine residue in there instead of barley, then sure.
Beer with straws? What was it, ladies night?
Beer thru a straw?.........................yuck!...........
As long as they weren’t plastic eh?
Recently found the world’s second oldest straws in the back of the kitchen junk drawer. The plastic disintegrated upon touch. Very disappointing, as we needed straws for the takeout milkshakes because the new shop didn’t have any straws yet. So, we used spoons, which do not result in the same milkshake satisfaction. Alas, I digress...
I don’t know if these are like that, but some of those straws had rough filters in them, to filter the beer as you drank it, as the beer itself was unfiltered.
That was the straw that broke the Camelback Beer.
Evidence of straws completely disappeared after 3,000 BC due to the ban.
Straw #1 in the first photo was a prototype that didn’t work out and was abandoned.
Looks like vacuum cleaner attachments.
Thanks BL.
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