BEER ........ 13,000 years a brewing............ so drink up and toast your god

[ichingcarpenter]

New evidence supports the hypothesis that beer may have been motivation to cultivate cereals

Stanford University archaeologists are turning the history of beer on its head.

A research team led by Li Liu, a professor of Chinese archaeology at Stanford, has found evidence of the earliest brewmasters to date, a finding that might stir an old debate: What came first, beer or bread?

In a cave in what is now Israel, the team found beer-brewing innovations that they believe predate the early appearance of cultivated cereals in the Near East by several millennia. Their findings, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, support a hypothesis proposed by archaeologists more than 60 years ago: Beer may have been a motivating factor for the original domestication of cereals in some areas.

'Oldest record of man-made alcohol'

Evidence suggests that thousands of years ago, the Natufian people, a group of hunter-gatherers in the eastern Mediterranean, were quite the beer connoisseurs.

Liu and her research team analyzed residues from 13,000-year-old stone mortars found in the Raqefet Cave, a Natufian graveyard site located near what is now Haifa, Israel, and discovered evidence of an extensive beer-brewing operation.

"This accounts for the oldest record of man-made alcohol in the world," Liu said.

The researchers believe that the Natufians brewed beer for ritual feasts that venerated the dead.

"This discovery indicates that making alcohol was not necessarily a result of agricultural surplus production, but it was developed for ritual purposes and spiritual needs, at least to some extent, prior to agriculture," Liu said about their findings.

In her lab analysis, Liu said she was surprised to discover evidence of beer brewing in the residue samples they gathered.

"We did not set out to find alcohol in the stone mortars, but just wanted to investigate what plant foods people may have consumed because very little data was available in the archaeological record," said Liu, who is the Sir Robert Ho Tung Professor in Chinese Archaeology at Stanford's School of Humanities and Sciences.

As Liu notes in the paper, the earliest bread remains to date were recently recovered from the Natufian site in east Jordan. Those could be from 11,600 to 14,600 years old. The beer finding she reports here could be from 11,700 to 13,700 years old.

more: https://m.phys.org/news/2018-09-evid...e-cereals.html


Notice the time period? Right around the time of Gobekli Tepe

[Ivanhoe]

Don't mean to derail the thread iching but I thought you'd get a kick outta this, it immediately came to mind. lol

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=AOiyksNlrY0

[Foxie Loxie]

[Deux Corbeaux]

18 great uses for beer beside drinking it

1. Put it in your chili

One of the best ways to add flavor and a little extra liquid to a chili is with a nice bottle of beer. Use the darker beers — they have more flavor and add more punch.

2. Turn ordinary rice into something very special

Next time you cook up a pot of long-grain rice, perhaps Jasmine or Basmati, cook the rice up in beer. Something with a lot of flavor will work well, like a brown ale or stout. The rice will absorb the beer and have a lovely flavor. Better still, it will look brown in hue, making people think you’re eating healthy!

3. Kill slugs

Worms are a gardener’s best friend, but slugs are not. Salt is a great way to dry up these slimy pests, but that means you have to find them first. Instead, entice them with a little beer, which slugs love. Simply pour a little into some empty jars and place them in the soil, with the rims of the jars at ground level. The slugs will drop in for a drink, but they can’t get back out. And what a way to go; Certainly better than the salt-shriveling death.

4. Take a beer bath

It’s said the Cleopatra used to bathe in milk. Pah, that’s for lightweights. P. Diddy went one better and filled bathtubs full of expensive champagne at a birthday party. I say, go with the middle ground. Drain a few kegs into the tub and let the invigorating bubbles cleanse the skin and exfoliate. The yeasts and other ingredients are great skin-softeners. Then take a long shower.

5. Cure your lawn of brown spots

I talked to a gardener who assured me that the acids in the beer would help kill off bugs and the other ingredients would help promote green growth.

6. Ease a stomachache

The carbonation in the beer can help ease your nasty tum rumbles. Of course, this is not a good one for children, or people with an ulcer or serious other stomach illness.

7. Stain removal

Something nasty on your carpet? Maybe a red wine stain? Well, a light beer will help pull that stain out. Sometimes a little club soda first will also help.

8. Make a killer meat-tenderizing marinade

Use a good beer or lager, or sometimes a stout. The beer will really help soften the meat, add a distinctive taste, and it’s way better than those chemical tenderizers.

9. Revive wooden furniture

Got a few opened, half-empty beers from a party? Well, flat beer makes a great wood reviver. Just dampen a microfiber cloth with your flat beer, then rub gently into your furniture It will give it a polish and bring back some color.

10. The easy hair highlighter

Give your lovely locks that sun-kissed glow. Soak you hair in beer and then lay in the sun. It will pull out terrific highlight and make you smell deliciously hoppy! (Alternately, wash the beer out if you’d rather smell like a normal person.) Beer is also a handy hair conditioner.

11. Polish your gold jewelry

Don’t bother buying expensive store-bought cleaners. Drop your rings and other trinkets into a dish of beer, then remove and polish to a beautiful sheen using a dry cloth.

12. The bee attractor

I really don’t like bees and wasps, especially at outside dinners and get-togethers in the park or garden. So, an hour before the event is due to kick off, place some small containers of beer around the perimeter of the yard. The sugar and smell will attract the bees and they’ll be happy enough around the beer while you enjoy your shindig bee-free.

13. The inevitable beer-batter

Like the English, I love fish ‘n’ chips. And a good batter is essential. Follow this recipe for great-tasting beer-batter on your piece of prime cod. And.... it’s great for using with vegetables as well.

1 12oz bottle of beer
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons paprika
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 egg, beaten

14. Use it to heal

As some of you may know, beer is a diuretic. And therefore, it can be used to help pass a kidney stone. It cannot, however, be used like other diuretics — to treat liver cirrhosis (for obvious reasons).

15. Start a conversation

By carefully spilling a little of the beer of the attractive person next to you, male or female, you give yourself an opening to apologize, buy them a new drink and start a charming conversation. Just a nudge though, if you drench them they’ll be ticked off and you’ll be considered a prize moron.

16. Soak your feet

If you’ve had a hard day at work, a cold beer isn’t just good for your spirits. Those tired, aching feet can be revived by a beer foot-bath. Please, don’t be tempted to drink the contents afterwards…

17. Wash your pillowcases in it

This may be an old wives tale, but apparently the nutty smell of hops helps you fall asleep. If you’re an insomniac, try washing a pillowcase in beer and you may just get to the land of nod sooner than you think.

18. Give yourself movie-star looks

Simply buy many bottles of beer for the person you want to date and ensure they drink it all. By the time they’ve finished, they’ll think you have the looks of a million-dollar Hollywood star.

If you know of any other uses for the mighty brew, please let me know.

[Satori]

And, to add to the list and as Tom T Hall says, it makes one "a jolly good fellow."

[raregem]

Beer Cheese Soup