Evidence shows Bronze Age Egyptians brewed beer in ancient Tel Aviv

Ceramic shards that were found at the construction site date to the Bronze Age, & are believed to have been used in the Egyptian brewing of a grain based alcoholic beverage.

 

Artifacts indicating the presence of an ancient beer-brewing Egyptian community were discovered Sunday morning at a construction site in southern Tel Aviv, according to an official statement by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Egyptian era archeological findings in Tel Aviv, hinting at ancient beer-making on site.‏ – Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority

The ceramic shards found at the site, which is near the Azrieli towers and is slated to be the location for an office building, are believed to have been used in the brewing of the grain-based alcoholic beverage, and date to the Bronze age, around the year 3,000 to 3,500 BCE.

According to the statement “beer was the national drink of the Egyptians,” and, like bread, was a staple of nutrition at the time, so much so that it was consumed by all members of society, including the old, the young, the rich and the poor.

The ceramic pottery matches similar equipment used in producing beer that was found at another site known to have been occupied by the ancient Egyptians.

Yet the discovery is ground-breaking in that it exhibits the northern-most settlement of the ancient Bronze-age Egyptians. Until the discovery of the brewing equipment, evidence suggested that the extent of the period’s Pharonic Egyptians was the area just north of the Negev desert and along Israel’s southern shore.

 

View original The Jerusalem Post publication at: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Beer-in-the-Bronze-age-Evidence-shows-Egyptians-brewed-up-a-party-in-ancient-Tel-Aviv-395464