This story appeared in the May 2020 issue as "Brews from a Cave Grave." Subscribe to Discover magazine for more stories like this.
The first beer was for the dead. That’s according to a 2018 study of stone vessels from Raqefet Cave in Israel, a 13,000-year-old graveyard containing roughly 30 burials of the Natufian culture. On three limestone mortars, archaeologists found wear and tear and plant molecules, interpreted as evidence of alcohol production. Given the cemetery setting, researchers propose grog was made during funerary rituals in the cave, as an offering to the dearly departed and refreshment for the living. Raqefet’s beer would predate farming in the Near East by as much as 2,000 years — and booze production, globally, by some 4,000 years.
But other archaeologists say the site was dry, and the vessels carved into stones and the cave floor were used to bake bread. Science Smackdown asks: ...
