It is a well - hump fact that the Ancient Greeks like a drink or two . The symposium was basically the ancient version of a “ pub crawl ” and even require games ofkottabos , which is basically beer pong with more slaves and less ale . Then there was the god , Dionysus , pay to the prowess of winemaking , wine-colored , and ritual madness – a code word for drinking if ever we ’ve heard one .
And while there is no doubt wine-coloured was their deglutition of choice , young inquiry put out in the journalVegetation History and Archaeobotanysuggests it was n’t the only alcoholic drinkable on the market . Archaeologists have unearthed two breweries – one in Archondiko , northerly Greece , and one at Agrissa , eastern Greece – date stamp back to the third millennium BCE . This is the erstwhile grounds of beer production in Greece to escort .
“ It is an unexpected find for Greece , because until now all evidence point to wine-coloured , " Tania Valamoti , associate prof of archeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and study researcher , toldLive Science .
" I ’m 95 pct sure that they were making some form of beer , " she added . " Not the beer we know today , but some form of beer . "
The team establish 1000 of preserved sprouted cereal grains dating to 2100 - 2000 BCE in Archondiko ( other Bronze Age ) and 2100 - 1700 BCE in Agrissa ( ahead of time to middle Bronze Age ) . This is a telling find because to make beer , you necessitate grain grain , which are sprouted during the malting process to turn the food grain ’s amylum into sugars .
But that ’s not all . The archeologist came across 75 special cups in Archondiko and Argissa that may have been used to function beer and a two - chambered structure at Archondiko . It appear to have been build up specifically to keep nerveless temperatures in the rearward bedchamber . Valamoti has say that it could be broken enough to train mash and wort duringthe beer - ready process .
While this is the earliest evidence for beer output in Greece , it is not the earliest grounds for beer production per se . The old write record of brewing is in the Sumerian textbook , The Epic of Gilgamesh(c . 2500 BCE - 3500 BCE ) , and we have a go at it the Ancient Egyptians were already indulging in aleby the fourth millenary BCE . But it does undermine the ordinarily - held theory that prehistoric communities could be neatly categorise into “ vino cultures ” and “ beer cultures ” .
“ Prehistoric Greece was wine country , no doubt , this is confirmed by archaeobotany , textual evidence , and artifacts , ” the study authorsexplained . “ But we have presented equally convincing evidence that beer was also brewed . ”
More research is need to run out on the nose when , why , and by who this beer was being consumed .
