Beer - How it all went down? For ALL of you who wanna know more! Cheers!

Which came first - bread or beer?

Unlike the question of the hen and the egg, where the egg comes first (the evolutionary ancestors of birds laid eggs), this is already a serious scientific and philosophical dilemma. Scientists previously believed that the first cereals such as wild wheat, barley and rye were domesticated about 11,000 years ago for food production, ie human nutrition. However, over time, archaeological evidence has emerged that many early humans originally cultivated and stored these same grains for drinking, or for - beer. One scientific paper from the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory (2012) thus testifies to the archaeological remains of tools for making beer in the so-called Natufian culture from the eastern Mediterranean from the late Paleolithic.In other words, the first known craft brewery in the world was located in a cave in Israel about 13,000 years ago.

And what is really interesting here is that the mentioned Natufians were still living a semi-nomadic way of life at that time, that is, that they did not grow at all, but still hunted and collected their food.
But, that's why they were like that - they produced their own drink. Domestication of cereals for food production appears only about a thousand years later, as evidenced by the work from the Journal of Archaeological Science (2018).

People made, brewed and consumed their craft beer at ritual feasts long before they baked bread and muffins, discovered flour and yeast, let alone letters, cities, laws, kings and states. Men and women from the Stone Age apparently came to certain (Edenic?) Locations to have fun and lodge much earlier than they began to roam the fields in the biblical sweat of their faces.

Was it then the human thirst for beer that was the original incentive to tame those grains at all?
And what has gradually led to huge and revolutionary social changes in the history of mankind? To agriculture (Neolithic revolution) and cities (urban revolution), class stratification, letters, and even some - civilization?

Remains of beer production were also discovered at the famous archeological site of Gobekli Tepe in today's southern Turkey. This Neolithic site, from about 11,000 years ago, is the oldest example of monumental architecture on planet Earth (about 7,000 years older than the Pyramid of Cheops or Stonehenge). And right there, it was discovered through giant stone troughs or vessels, at the bottom of which there was a certain calcium oxalate, a chemical that appears after the process of soaking, kneading and fermenting wheat or barley grains. In other words, it was a by-product - brewing beer.

Also, from the ancient single-grain wheat (Triticum boeoticum), extremely dull and miserable bread could be made - but also an excellent wheat beer. It was similar in almost every place on Earth where agriculture or food production is discovered.

In present-day Mexico, the wild grass from which corn (theosinte) is made was very suitable for the production of beer, but not corn flour for bread or tortillas. Corn beer was also made by the Incas and Apaches. And the first evidence of rice beer production in today's China is from 9,000 years ago, and rice is only then domesticated for food in Asia.

What's the catch?

Our hunting and gathering ancestors, as well as other animals (such as chimpanzees and African elephants), must have constantly come across nutritious pieces of fermented fruit or cereals. And then they tasted and tried them. Due to a random genetic mutation from about 10 million years ago, human animals began to tolerate alcohol up to 40 times more efficiently than most other mammals.

Namely, those human ancestors who preferred the smell and taste of alcohol, as well as metabolized that ethanol more efficiently, survived more. Thanks to Darwin, so evolution naturally chose primates who preferred to be drunk rather than sober. And the drunken tribes were militarily defeated by those who are sober.

Finally, instead of simply collecting rotten fruit from the ground, man took his destiny into his brewery hands. And only then did he realize that cereals could also be grown for food, not just for drinks.
Of course, this early beer was not like today's, and probably more reminiscent of some kind of fermented cereal soup. However, most of the ancient beer - as it is today - was made from barley, which was first sweetened, and then heated or brewed, producing sugars, complex carbohydrates, vitamins and alcohol along the way.

All this was a strong incentive for hunter-gatherers to tame wild grains, to settle permanently, to form the first large-scale societies, villages and towns, and even to loosen social boundaries between clans, tribes and groups. In other words, beer is older than bread, simply because it is easier to make, more caloric, carbonated, and still has an intoxicating effect. Consuming alcohol releases endorphins, and natural opiates that are triggered both by chocolate and sex.

Another Urukagin Code from the 24th century BC. n. e, probably the oldest legal document in the world (and seven centuries older than Hammurabi's), listed beer as the basic unit of payment and penalties.

And should it be surprising that in this brewing code, for the first time in history, the word - freedom appears?

Quite simply, beer has been an integral part of many human cultures for thousands and thousands of years, and most of the world’s religions make extensive use of alcoholic beverages. At least four Sumerian gods were dedicated to beer, and the Hymn to the goddess Ninaski (from 1,800 BC) is actually a recipe for beer in verse. Beer, three times a day, was also paid to Egyptian workers who built the pyramids at Giza. The first letter was not used for some kind of poetry and drama, evil and upside down, but only for accounting or bureaucratic reports on the quantities of grain for beer.

Also, alcohol kills harmful bacteria, and beer has historically (or before water and sewage) been incomparably less dangerous than water. Evidence that testifies to the very early production and consumption of beer, allows us to vividly imagine the magnetic role of this barley, wheat or rye beverage for our early man. This drink would attract hunter-gatherers from all directions, to permanent settlements or temples like Gobekli Tepe. Periodic alcohol-based feasts served as a social glue to keep people and communities together.

Both Babylonian and Egyptian art comfortably depicts a crowd of people sitting at a tavern table around a mug of beer (okay, around jugs from which some barley cane protrudes), and who trade, talk and gossip. Thus, beer played a key role in social gatherings in the cradle of civilization, that is, in early agricultural and urban societies around the world. Just as beer plays that same role today.

And all this is a huge lesson for our pandemic modernity.

Namely, famous anthropologists like Robin Dunbar also claim that social intoxication played a central role in our evolution as a highly social primate with a huge brain. Human ancestors held feasts 400,000 years ago, which contributed to the development of complex social ties, and the practice of exchanging food, myths, jokes and gossip. Beer undoubtedly stimulates those creative activities such as dance, music, conversation, and functions.

Simply, beer was and remains - a social beverage. And humans are social animals, right?

And that is exactly why the closure of cafes, bars and restaurants was so difficult for us in the Covid-19 pandemic. Okay, schools and colleges are closed, and some theaters and cinemas - but do they have to close cafes?

Beer has made us human the way we are, it has contributed to our sociability and creativity, and perhaps to our survival as a species. Humans were not created to get drunk. But the fact that they were drunk helped them create a civilization as such. As in prehistory, alcohol still lubricates exactly all celebrations, celebrations and feasts, business meetings and diplomatic agreements, scientific conferences and Formula 1 winners.

Alcohol simply deinhibits the activity of our prefrontal cortex, which makes intoxicated "me" cooperate much more and trust each other much more. That is why even today we do not have enough trust in people who do not drink alcohol and do not visit cafes.

Any Crisis Staff that sticks to itself and prescribes epidemic measures, so it would really have to consult - anthropologists.

It was not people who discovered, rolled or nailed agriculture and the accompanying civilization because they wanted food, whatever. There was plenty of food around. The sapiens brewed civilization because they brewed beer. And consuming beer in society is then existentially more important than some hateful and deadly coronaviruses.

Social cohesion, cooperation and solidarity are essential things for every society, and beer contributes to that and such social cohesion. Intoxication without inhibitions, anxiety and social restraints is also an extremely convenient, sexy, and skilled socio-cultural tool or an ancient application.

Beer lubricates the functioning of society. But then let's behave in a civilized way in our pandemic as well?

Cheers!