A Cross-Cultural Study of Ancient Beer Production at Hochdorf, Hierakonpolis, and Cerro Baúl

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This poster focuses on a cross-cultural examination of the processes of beer making and the links between social status and this class of alcoholic beverage in three unique ancient cultures: The Celts at Hochdorf in Southwest Germany, the predynastic Egyptians at Hierakonpolis, and the Wari at Cerro Baúl in Peru. Together, these constitute rather diverse contexts for ancient brewing processes which enhance our understanding of the complexities of the production and consumption of fermenting beverages in antiquity. Additionally, we discuss the difficulties associated with the ephemeral nature of botanical remains and the ways in which the process of brewing beer can be teased out of the archaeological record by using macrobotanical flotation, residue analyses via mass spectrometry, ethnoarchaeological research, and experimental archaeology. To conduct this research, we employ a variety of existing studies deriving from archaeological and ethnoarchaeological data on beer brewing from each of these contexts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24464