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Alcohol Created Civilization

Ah, alcohol. Is there any other liquid that does so much for human kind (discounting water, of course)? A single draft of beer can turn enemies into friends, friends into lovers. Beer also, apparently, could be the impetus for civilization as we know it.

Patrick McGovern is an archaeologist and knows more about alcohol than your average Joe. He's one of the leading experts on the study of ancient alcoholic brews and has found that mankind had been brewing beer as far back as 9000 years ago.

Ancient beer brewing is not like the process you're used to today. It involved an unsavory mix of teeth and saliva. Wild rice was rigorously chewed, turning the starchy substance into a malt sugar. This solution would then be added to a mixture of honey, wild grapes and hawthorn fruits to produce a liquid which most would tentatively call "beer."

His earliest sample of ancient beer was found in a Neolithic village at the Jiahu site in China, which dates back to about 7000 BC. McGovern examined the clay shards and found that they had traces of Tartaric acid, a compound in ancient brews.

The pottery sheds in China and other regions of the world such as Africa and Mexico have led McGovern to theorize that alcohol played a pivotal role in the development of early civilization.

"The main motivation for settling down and domesticating crops was probably to make an alcoholic beverage of some kind," McGovern stated. "People wanted to be closer to their plants so this leads to settlement."

The Independent

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