Where was beer invented?
Even in the first cities of mankind, the fermented grain drink was a staple food. But its history goes back thousands of years: to the dawn of the Neolithic Age.
The history of alcoholic beverages goes back a long way. Already in the 4th millennium BC. the Egyptians and the inhabitants of the Levant coast fermented grape juice into wine. The mead is almost a cliché as the favorite drink of the Germans. In fact, traces of fermented honey can already be chemically detected in vessels from the Neolithic Bell Beaker culture (about 2800–1800 BC). In short, many ancient cultures valued alcoholic beverages. They were nutritious and intoxicating, which played a role in cults and rituals in particular. In addition, people may have noticed that such drinks were more digestible than water. Of course, they didn't know the reason back then: Even a low alcohol content is effective against pathogenic germs.
Probably the oldest drink of this kind is beer, brewed from fermented grain. Until recently it was thought to be an invention of the "Neolithic Revolutionaries", ie the first sedentary farmers in the Fertile Crescent region. The experts believed that it then acquired its importance in the first urban societies. Recently, however, there are increasing indications that this notion needs to be corrected. Thanks to scientific methods, the history of this beverage technology can be traced further and further back. Beer was probably already being drunk in the Near East, when people were not yet living in permanent villages and cultivating fields. Evidence of this comes from the cult complex on the Göbekli Tepe in Southeastern Anatolia, which archaeologists date back to the 10th century.millennium BC date. The stone pillars, decorated with reliefs and arranged in circles, form the oldest monumental structure known to mankind. At that time, in the "Ceramic Neolithic", people still lived as foragers and without clay pots. But because a favorable climate made grain-bearing grasses such as wild barley grow plentifully, people seasonally stayed in place and harvested without sowing…
