Drinking Beer in a Blissful Mood: A Global Archaeology of Beer

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Drinking Beer in a Blissful Mood: A Global Archaeology of Beer" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

“Drinking beer in a blissful mood. Drinking liquor feeling exhilarated.” This is one of the most well-known stanzas in the archaeology of beer, drawn from a Sumerian tavern song of the fourth millennium BCE in Mesopotamia, the birthplace of beer . . . or was it? Archaeological evidence of beer and brewing has been recovered from civilizations across the ancient world and over the course of millennia. From the corn-based chicha of the Wari and Inka Empires of South America, to the rice-based beers of Neolithic China, to Viking-era grogs across western Europe, as well as the early beers and eventual breweries of both ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, beer is far from the monolithic fermented beverage often imagined today. Beer has been brewed as both a daily household beverage and as a large-scale festive brew. It has served as payment for labor, as well as an intercessor between people and deities. Beer is deeply ancient, vastly diverse, and a fascinating entry point into understandings of the ancient people who brewed and consumed this beverage. Through this session we explore the archaeological evidence of ancient beers and their brewers from a variety of ancient global contexts.