Essay About Beer In Mesopotamia

Beer, the first beverage appeared as a result of changed lifestyle for the early humans. Before, humans were nomads, who would follow their food (pg. 9). But starting about 12,000 years ago humans had picked up on a new lifestyle (pg. 9). These small bands of about 30 people were now settling down in more permanent areas and had abandoned their old ways of constantly traveling (pg. 9). This drastic turning point in human history seemed to primarily come from one reason, the discovery of beer (pg.11). As beer was basically formed from the gathering of barley and wheat, humans had to form some type of permanent residency, and abandon their old nomadic lifestyle (pg.11).

The use and creation of beer is closely linked to the domestication of cereal grains and the practice of farming.

The creation of beer can be dated back to over 5,000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia. Located in the South of Mesopotamia , the cultivation of cereals also around the time of the creation of the first forms of writing, the Sumerians were practicing the art of brewing beer. Artifacts excavated from the ruins of ancient cities prove that brewing beer was already an established custom. Around 4,000 years ago, there was also evidence of Chinese brewing their own beer from rice, honey, grapes, and hawthorn fruits. However the Sumerians made their beer from twice baked barley bread. Beer allowed a more abundant sharing of an ingredient not very easy to cultivate at the beginning. In fact, it was easier to do a lot of beer with a bit of grain that much bread with the same amount of grain. Many beers are made by soaking breads fermented, cooked in water and leaving ferment the mixture.

As beer started becoming a necessity, it showed the strong need for agriculture in society. People came together, to make an industry of beer, and creating civilizations.

Beer started out as gruel, and as the gruel fermented it turned into beer. Now it was not the first form of alcohol, but it was an important kind of alcohol. Beer was made from cereal crops, which were very abundant, and because it was so abundant it could be made whenever it was needed. They then found an even easier way to make beer by using beer-bread. Beer bread is basically everything needed to make beer in a loaf, making it convenient to store the raw beer materials. Beer started as just a social drink but then blossomed into a “hallmark of civilization”, as seen by the Mesopotamians. Grain was the basis of the national diet, it was

1. The discovery of beer is linked to the growth of the first civilizations because in both cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt, beer was the main drink. It was consumed by everyone and was known as the defining drink of both of the first great civilizations.

1. The discovery of beer is linked to the growth of the first civilizations because the discovery of beer was central to social, religious, and economic life, bringing everyone together which was the setup of most

One of the most important inventions that the Sumerians were famous for was cuneiform. Cuneiform was a type of writing, and it was the first written language (Doc. 1). The Sumerians invented this writing system to keep track of records and business deals (Doc. 1). The way that the Sumerians wrote in cuneiform was by taking pieces of soft clay from the river and carving into it (OI).

Beer: Beer was not invented, it was discovered. Exactly when the first beer was brewed is unknown but there was almost certainly no beer before 10,000 BCE. The rise of beer was closely associated with the domestication of the cereal grains rom which it is made and the adoption of farming. Beer originated in the Fertile Crescent in Egypt and Mesopotamia. To beer drinkers in the Neolithic period, beer’s ability to intoxicate and induce a state of altered consciousness seemed magical. This caused them to believe beer was a gift from the Gods. Since it was a gift from the gods, it was presented as a religious offering in religious ceremonies, agricultural fertility rites, and in

Mesopotamia is credited for inventing the first written language and the first written laws. Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia needed an efficient way to keep track of their business dealings with other people who lived thousands of miles away. The people often could not remember or agree upon what they had traded; this led to nasty disputes. As a result,the Sumerians created Cuneiform, the first written language. It was quickly accepted and widely used throughout Mesopotamia.

Is it strange that cereal grains go from bland to exciting and favorable to use in everyday life by one invention: beer. The cereal grains was turned not boring by adding only two things: water and time. The Egyptians' love for beer faltered since they made at least seventeen types of beer. Neither did the Mesopotamians' excitement, since they made over twenty types of beer. Also in Mesopotamia, they had government storehouses that hold beer-bread named bappir to keep for making beer or to use during food shortages. When people were passionate about something they dwell on it and that is what the Mesopotamians and Egyptians showed. The hype for beer did not end there since it became a symbol of friendship. The most important thing, that beer might have done to the Egyptians, Sumerians, Incas and China was to be used in religious offerings like funerals since it was a gift from gods. In my opinion, beer most been good, since they considered highly to be given to their gods. Then, beer turned socially acceptable after all the Sumerians started making stories about people turning human when eating bread and drinking beer. That is when beer is started to be use in everyday life instead of once a while because beer became a part of their culture. The Mesopotamians invented writing for the purpose of collection and distribution of bread and beer. Which led to inequality because depending on their job, they get a specific amount of beer and bread as payment since it was currency. Beer was important on many levels. It was used for food, religious offerings, stories, and

In the chapters “A Stone-Age Brew” and “Civilized Beer” from the book A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Tom Standage describes how beer affected the lives of the first humans who lived in year-round settlements and later in the first civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Beer played a significant role in turning the first humans from hunter gatherers to farmers. Beer was discovered in the Fertile Crescent around 12,000 years ago, when gruel derived from gathered grains (a staple food) that was in storage fermented. These ancient groups of hunter-gatherers found this beverage “slightly fizzy and pleasantly intoxicating” (Standage 15) and realized it was more easily made than other alcoholic drinks. Over time, the quality and variety of beer increased by trial and error.

1A. We can find out about prehistoric lives through non-written sources such as pictograms. There is many benefits to exploring history through non-written sources. Through these sources you are able to understand how the first civilizations kept track of everything such as their surplus. In addition to this, since writing was not around when the first civilizations had started, through these resources we are able to learn what happened since these early civilizations did have non-written sources.

Eventually beer also had other qualities that allowed farming to progress and that is that beer was not harmful to humans as water was (21). Because of this people found out different ways in which they could produce this drink by having different forms of agriculture advancing its form from regular seeds being planted to massive productions, just as did the Greeks and Romans did by using their slave population to farm all of their grapes for the wine in order to drive a successful wine market (71). Farming allowed for populations to grow from small villages to cities to then allow the adoption of beer and wine to become an essential product that drove agriculture to the civilization and growth of people. Along the same lines we can also see how this development of beer due to farming allowed people to become more than just any regular barbaric man, and show that they were people with class.

Beer has a long history. In 2000 B.C.E., Sumerians had prepared eight different beer types, ranging from “strong,” “red brown,” and “good dark” (Mauk, 2013). Breweries have created their own recipes, brewed their own beers—some with alcohol, some without. Over the past few years, craft beer gained steady market share away from the national and international breweries (Murray & O 'Neill, 2012). Separating one beer from the next is the product itself, and what the product has to offer. Competition is ferocious due to more informed, sophisticated consumers, as well as globalization and the spread of technology (Murray & O 'Neill, 2012).