Beer : Health and Nutrition

2 Beer Through History
It seems that the rst domesticated grain dates from around 8000 BC in the regions of
Tell Aswad, Jericho and Nahal Oren. A stamp seal from Tepe Gawra (one of the most
important historic sites of ancient North Mesopotamia, now Northern Iraq) of some 6000
years ago is the rst evidence of beer consumption: it depicts two people drinking beer
from a single container using straws (Katz & Voigt 1986). Sumerian and Mesopotamian
texts and artwork feature beer to a substantial extent, with the oldest known recipe being
recorded as the Hymn to Ninkasi (Oriental Institute 2002). The lengthy verse (from
which I quote extracts) refers to Ninkasi as
the one who handles dough [and] …
with a big shovel,
Mixing, in a pit, the bappir with sweet aromatics.
This refers to the practice at the time of making a bread from sprouted barley, the bread
subsequently being lightly baked:
You are the one who bakes the bappir in the
big oven,
We recognise that it was barley because of the retained hull (or husk, see Chapter 3):
Puts in order the piles of hulled grain.
The ‘malt’ was then mixed with water, allowing the endogenous enzymes to digest
the starch in the production of ‘wort’ and for adventitious yeasts to commence the
fermentation process:
You are the one who waters the malt set
on the ground,
You are the one who soaks the malt in a jar,
You are the one who spreads the cooked mash on
large reed mats,