Through the Bar Window: An Examination of Alcohol and Drinking Spaces in the Archaeological Record

Drinking spaces served one explicit purpose: the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Beyond this basic function, however, they performed many additional roles within the Atlantic World and beyond. They reinforced the social nature of drinking and promoted feelings of camaraderie, loyalty, and commiseration. Alcohol itself contributed to a loosening of inhibitions and subsequent lack of accountability (either feigned or real). Drinking spaces also stood as liminal spaces, allowing actions and conversation within their walls that were not approved of elsewhere. These institutions played host to informal economic deals, political discourse, rebellious schemes, and illicit meetings – especially between individuals not able to meet elsewhere. This session examines alcohol and drinking spaces archaeologically, covering institutions such as taverns, saloons, brothels, and molly houses in the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. It also examines those places involved in the production of alcohol, including plantations, distilleries, and breweries.