Oldest Beer in the World Found

Sorry, Ancient Egypt, you've been outdone.

We've been making beer, wine, and various spirits for a long time. Thousands of years, in fact, or about as long as humanity has been planting crops. It was assumed that the discovery of fermentation was a byproduct of agriculture development and the baking of bread; it wasn't done purposefully, at least at first. However, a new discovery has thrown that theory into doubt.

Researchers were investigating a cave in Israel inhabited by a group of hunter-gatherers about 13,000 years ago, predating the Neolithic period, which started around 10,000 BC. They found traces of an alcoholic beverage based on wheat and barley within a collection of stone mortars carved into the floor of the cave. Using similar ingredients, the researchers recreated the drink, which was fermented and alcoholic, but was weaker than modern beer and had the consistency of gruel. Not particularly appetizing, but hey, these are some pretty primitive people we're talking about here.

What's most interesting is the appearance of intent. Not only does this find predate all previous discoveries of alcoholic beverages, the site seems to be a brewery of sorts. 13,000 years ago, we were purposefully making beer to drink. To put that into perspective, that's about 8,000 years before the previous first appearance of beer, about 5,000 years before the first appearance of wine, and 3,000 years before the first appearance of any sort of alcoholic beverage. It basically predates agriculture, which wouldn't become widespread for another thousand years. Remember, this was a nomadic tribe of hunter-gatherers, not farmers. And they were still purposefully making beer. Now that was a group of people with a proper set of priorities.