Archaeologists Find What May Be Oldest Known Beer Factory

Found in Abydos, Egypt
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 14, 2021 8:30 AM CST
Ancient Beer Factory May Be Oldest Ever Found
Pottery basins, which archaeologists say were used to heat up a mixture of grains and water to produce beer   (Egyptian Antiquities Ministry via AP)

American and Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed what could be the oldest known beer factory at one of the most prominent archaeological sites of ancient Egypt, a top antiquities official said Saturday. Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the factory was found in Abydos, an ancient burial ground located in the desert west of the Nile River, over 280 miles south of Cairo. Per the AP, he said the factory apparently dates back to the region of King Narmer, who is widely known for his unification of ancient Egypt at the beginning of the First Dynastic Period (3150 BC- 2613 BC). Archaeologists found eight huge units—each is about 65 feet long and about 8 feet wide. Each unit includes some 40 pottery basins in two rows, which had been used to heat up a mixture of grains and water to produce beer, Waziri said.

The joint mission is co-chaired by Dr. Matthew Adams of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and Deborah Vischak, assistant professor of ancient Egyptian art history and archaeology at Princeton University. Adams said the factory was apparently built in this area to provide royal rituals with beer, given that archaeologists found evidences showing the use of beer in sacrificial rites of ancient Egyptians. British archaeologists were the first to mention the existence of that factory early 1900s, but they couldn't determine its location, the antiquities ministry said. With its vast cemeteries and temples from the earliest times of ancient Egypt, Abydos was known for monuments honoring Osiris, ancient Egypt’s god of the underworld and the deity responsible for judging souls in the afterlife. (More ancient Egypt stories.)

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