On Saturday, the country’s tourism and antiquities ministry said that a team of local and American archaeologists had uncovered the world’s oldest beer production site in the ancient Egyptian city of Abydos.
According to Al Jazeera, the site, which is over 5,000 years old and set on a cemetery field, was most likely created during the time of King Narmer, according to Mostafa Waziry, general secretary of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Shape of rings
King Narmer founded the First Dynasty and is credited with uniting Upper and Lower Egypt. Waziry revealed that the facility was separated into “eight vast sections” that served as breweries, each with roughly 40 pots organized in two rows to heat the grain and water mixture.
“Each basin is held in place by vertically mounted clay levers in the shape of rings,” the statement stated.
According to the ministry, the site was discovered by British archaeologists at the turn of the twentieth century. But, they were unable to establish its exact location, adding that the recent expedition was able to “re-locate and unveil its contents.”
Beer in sacrifice rituals
The expedition’s leader, Dr. Matthew Adams, stated that the factory produced 22,400 liters of beer at a time. That was most likely erected at its current site to furnish beer for royal ceremonies, held for deceased Egyptian rulers “inside the funeral facilities.”
“Evidence for the use of beer in sacrifice rituals was revealed during excavations in these structures,” the statement continued.
According to Al Jazeera, this isn’t the first time academics have unearthed signs of an ancient Egyptian brewery. In 2015, the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced the discovery of Egyptian beer-brewing earthenware. The fragments were unearthed in Tel Aviv and are estimated to be 5000 years old.
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