Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
At Israel’s Raqefet Cave, 13,000-year-old residues reveal the world’s oldest beer-like brew, likely fermented for funerary rituals by Natufian hunter-gatherers—well before settled agriculture.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Beer likely began when soaked grains spontaneously fermented from airborne yeast. Early humans may have discovered this bubbly transformation by chance, creating the first mild intoxicant.
The “Hymn to Ninkasi,” a 3,800-year-old Sumerian text, is both a prayer and a brewing guide—showing how beer was central to work, worship, and mythology in ancient Mesopotamia.
Some archaeologists believe beer, not bread, drove early cereal farming. The idea: humans may have cultivated grains more for drinking than for eating—fueling the Neolithic Revolution.
In ancient Egypt, beer wasn’t just food—it was payment. Workers were often compensated in daily beer rations, brewed from barley bread loaves soaked and fermented in water.
Jiahu, China (7000 BCE), had its own fermented grain-honey-fruit drinks, showing that beer-like beverages emerged independently in several cultures alongside early agriculture.
Before breweries, women brewed beer at home using stone tools, bread mash, and wild yeasts. It later evolved into a specialized trade in temples, palaces, and eventually monasteries.
Ancient beer was thick, porridge-like, and unfiltered. People sipped it through long straws to avoid sediment—far from today’s clear lagers and crisp pilsners.
From Mesopotamia to medieval Europe, beer has been a constant social staple—used in rituals, meals, and trade. Its history tracks the evolution of civilization itself.