Importance of alcohol production in the ancient world, study

Medical News Today ^ | 07 Apr 2005

[carumba]

Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation...

This could be in error, double check to see if it was Budweiser, Coors, or Miller breweries.

[endthematrix]

I find it fascinating the term honeymoon is derived from alcohol (mead) folklore.
The ancient Egyptians made "beer" with plenty of depictions painted on walls, etc.

[razorback-bert]

"differences in the operational chains of food and beverages helped to shape feasting strategies by presenting both diverse processing challenges and unusual opportunities."

Think Babelfish would make some sense of this?

[D-fendr]

"Getting enough beer and pizza for Superbowl Sunday was a real pain before Domino's and Budweiser."

[sully777]

Water treatment plants until the 20th century consisted of a still and some barrels. Alcoholic beverages were the safest outlets to get your daily supply of potable water, especially in cities of old world.

Not saying it was good since people generally fell dead around between 30-35 years old, just saying alcohol was safest water supply in a world of open sewers, horse droppings, malaria, yellow fever. typhoid, and dead animal and human corpses rotting in the streets, streams, rivers, and lakes.

[CobaltBlue]

One of the guys I work with is very active in the Masons and the Shriners. Laying in mass quantities of alcohol and meat is a very important part of his work for these organizations. He's the party man, the one who roasts entire pigs and hundreds of chickens, the one who sets up the Guy's Nights Out with cigars and fancy booze, and so forth. And he gets the bulk of his business from his contacts with these organizations.

I suspect that this type of social structure has been around for many thousands of years.

[SkyPilot]

By exploring the recipes used to make each of these beverages, they demonstrate how details of each drink's manufacture, such as shelf life, plant maturation, and labor crunches, offered challenges and opportunities to sponsors who attempted to organize their mass-production.

I believe a vast field of research has already been conducted by eminent scholars. The hypothesis is currently being explored.

[hershey]

Plus they kept having taste tests to see if it was beer yet.

[endthematrix]

Ancient Rome would process wine in lead vats. Not good.

[sphinx]

Come to think of it, if Teddy ever visited the New Guinea highlands, he could make an entire tribe very happy.

[SkyPilot]

Ancient Rome would process wine in lead vats. Not good.

Yup. Also, in the Middle Ages, people drank ale and strong beer from lead goblets. The combination was so toxic that they sometimes mistook these people for being dead. Since they used to re-use coffins back then, they discoverd about 25% of all coffins had scratch marks on the inside. They were burying people who were not yet dead.

Today, when we lay out the body of someone who dies, is this were the term "a wake" comes from?

[Route101]

just sit around watching all those drunk Romans take headers into the fountains.....

[arthurus]

A wake was to give the person a chance to wake up. When he started smelling bad he was deemed dead enough to bury.

[expatpat]

....for a year!

[Mike Fieschko]

ping

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Mike. You're a bud. ;')

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[lizma]

since people generally fell dead around between 30-35 years old

Actually if they lived past childhood, they had a good chance that they would make it to their fifties, even sixties. Life expectancy formulas don't factor out childhood deaths. Higher infant mortality rates show up as lower life expectancies.

I have a feeling that if you could make it to 20 back then, you would be immune to almost everything.

[ValerieUSA]

Current Anthropology sounds like Modern Antiquities...

[SamAdams76]

Since they used to re-use coffins back then, they discovered about 25% of all coffins had scratch marks on the inside.

I'm going to order an emergency exit option for my coffin - just in case. I'm thinking a quick release lever like the ones they use in the jet fighters for when they want to eject.