Natufian: Prehistoric Bakers and Brewers
Credit: Wil Stewart
Researchers agree wheat was first domesticated ten thousand years ago in the Middle East. Still, recent archaeological evidence shows wheat was common for hunters and gatherers for thousands of years before farming.
Credit: Sweetyoga Justine
Archaeobotanist Amaia Arranz-Otaegui and the archaeological team from the University of Copenhagen discovered a bread-like substance found in stone fireplaces at the Shubayqa 1 site in the Black Desert in Northeast Jordan that belonged to the Natufian culture. These hunter-gathers left charred remains from wild cereals and tubers to make flour for unleavened bread-like products four thousand years before the dawn of agriculture (Powell, 2019).
Predynastic brewery
Source: www.arce.org/project/hierakonpolis-expedition
Another great discovery one hundred fifty miles west of Shabayqa 1, “A Stanford University team analyzed residues on three Natufian stone mortars unearthed in Israel’s Raqefet cave.” (Powell, 2019) This indicated the Natufians were brewing beer using wild wheat and barley thirteen thousand years ago; supporting “a hypothesis proposed by archaeologists more than sixty years ago” (Witte, 2018) that Natufians brewed beer for ritual purposes.
A doctoral student at Stanford University, Jiajing Wang, explained, “ancient beer is far from what we drink today. It was most likely a multi-ingredient concoction like porridge or thin gruel.” Starch and microscopic phytolith particles were found, resulting from fermenting wheat and barley to beer.
The research team conducted experiments to mimic the process the Natufians possibly used in their beer-making. They believed the Natufians used a three-stage process, which would turn wheat starch to malt, then mash and heat, and last, left to ferment. Their findings were similar, as the excavated artifacts were comparable to the research team’s tools.
Credit: Frank Luca
The research team conducted experiments to mimic the process the Natufians possibly used in their beer-making. They believed the Natufians used a three-stage process, which would turn wheat starch to malt, then mash and heat, and last, left to ferment. Their findings were similar, as the excavated artifacts were comparable to the research team’s tools.
The researchers believed the Natufians brewed beer for ritual reasons to worship their ancestors. The bread-making may have begun for the same reason. “The two discoveries suggest that our prehistoric ancestors were bakers and brewers thousands of years before they even contemplated becoming full-time farmers” (Powell, 2019).
References
Hansen, C. (2018, July). Ancient Bakers Made Bread 4,000 Years Before Farming, Futurity. Retrieved from http://www.futurity.org
Powell, E. (2019). The First Bakers, Archaeology, A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. Retrieved from http://www.archaeology.org
Witte, M. (2018, September). An ancient thirst for beer may have inspired agriculture, Stanford archaeologists say, Stanford. Retrieved from http://www.news.stanford.edu
References
Hansen, C. (2018, July). Ancient Bakers Made Bread 4,000 Years Before Farming, Futurity. Retrieved from http://www.futurity.org
Powell, E. (2019). The First Bakers, Archaeology, A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. Retrieved from http://www.archaeology.org
Witte, M. (2018, September). An ancient thirst for beer may have inspired agriculture, Stanford archaeologists say, Stanford. Retrieved from http://www.news.stanford.edu
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