Investigating Natufian ritual feasting

[Jovialis]

Fermented beverage and food storage in 13,000 y-old stone mortars at Raqefet Cave, Israel: Investigating Natufian ritual feasting

Abstract

Fermented and alcoholic beverages played a pivotal role in feastings and social events in past agricultural and urban societies across the globe, but the origins of the sophisticated relevant technologies remain elusive. It has long been speculated that the thirst for beer may have been the stimulus behind cereal domestication, which led to a major social-technological change in human history; but this hypothesis has been highly controversial. We report here of the earliest archaeological evidence for cereal-based beer brewing by a semi-sedentary, foraging people. The current project incorporates experimental study, contextual examination, and use-wear and residue analyses of three stone mortars from a Natufian burial site at Raqefet Cave, Israel (13,700–11,700 cal. BP). The results of the analyses indicate that the Natufians exploited at least seven plant taxa, including wheat or barley, oat, legumes and bast fibers (including flax). They packed plant-foods, including malted wheat/barley, in fiber-made containers and stored them in boulder mortars. They used bedrock mortars for pounding and cooking plant-foods, including brewing wheat/barley-based beer likely served in ritual feasts ca. 13,000 years ago. These innovations predated the appearance of domesticated cereals by several millennia in the Near East.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X18303468?via=ihub

Article:

https://phys.org/news/2018-09-evidence-hypothesis-beer-cultivate-cereals.html

 

[Angela]

Fermented beverage and food storage in 13,000 y-old stone mortars at Raqefet Cave, Israel: Investigating Natufian ritual feasting

Abstract

Fermented and alcoholic beverages played a pivotal role in feastings and social events in past agricultural and urban societies across the globe, but the origins of the sophisticated relevant technologies remain elusive. It has long been speculated that the thirst for beer may have been the stimulus behind cereal domestication, which led to a major social-technological change in human history; but this hypothesis has been highly controversial. We report here of the earliest archaeological evidence for cereal-based beer brewing by a semi-sedentary, foraging people. The current project incorporates experimental study, contextual examination, and use-wear and residue analyses of three stone mortars from a Natufian burial site at Raqefet Cave, Israel (13,700–11,700 cal. BP). The results of the analyses indicate that the Natufians exploited at least seven plant taxa, including wheat or barley, oat, legumes and bast fibers (including flax). They packed plant-foods, including malted wheat/barley, in fiber-made containers and stored them in boulder mortars. They used bedrock mortars for pounding and cooking plant-foods, including brewing wheat/barley-based beer likely served in ritual feasts ca. 13,000 years ago. These innovations predated the appearance of domesticated cereals by several millennia in the Near East.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X18303468?via=ihub

Article:

https://phys.org/news/2018-09-evidence-hypothesis-beer-cultivate-cereals.html

So, the Natufians were first to produce beer, and all before the domestication of grains. How fascinating! It was quite a labor intensive process, too. I wonder how they first figured it out? Someone put some wild grains in water, left it all out in the sun, and decided to drink the water even though it smelled funny? The rest, as they say, is history.

Who was it who, a while ago, was so insistent that it was the Indo-Europeans who invented beer, and it gave them an advantage because it made them better warriors? Next, some of these people will be saying they invented fire. Honestly, that opinion was not only in contravention of the fact that we knew it had to be tied to grains, which the early steppe people didn't have, and that we even have recipes from the great civilizations of the Middle East for making beer, but it's in contravention of basic logic or even common sense. Who would want to go into battle with drunk soldiers?

 

[Angela]

So, the Natufians were first to produce beer, and all before the domestication of grains. How fascinating! It was quite a labor intensive process, too. I wonder how they first figured it out? Someone put some wild grains in water, left it all out in the sun, and decided to drink the water even though it smelled funny? The rest, as they say, is history.

Who was it who, a while ago, was so insistent that it was the Indo-Europeans who invented beer, and it gave them an advantage because it made them better warriors? Next, some of these people will be saying they invented fire. Honestly, that opinion was not only in contravention of the fact that we knew it had to be tied to grains, which the early steppe people didn't have, and that we even have recipes from the great civilizations of the Middle East for making beer, but it's in contravention of basic logic or even common sense. Who would want to go into battle with drunk soldiers?

There's a nice article in Heritage Daily on the findings which contain some nice pictures of the location and the boulder containers as well.
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2018/09/a-prehistoric-thirst-for-craft-beer/121637

"“We exposed a Natufian burial area with about 30 individuals; a wealth of small finds such as flint tools, animal bones and ground stone implements, and about 100 stone mortars and cupmarks. Some of the skeletons are well-preserved and provided direct dates and even human DNA, and we have evidence for flower burials and wakes by the graves."

I hope the various labs are aware of the former, and the latter gives me hope for mankind. It's not always about conquest and rape and other horrors.

"The use-wear patterns and microbotanical assemblage suggest that two of the three examined boulder mortars were used as storage containers for plant foods – including wheat/barley malts. Likely, they were covered with lids, probably made of stone slabs and other materials. The foods are likely to have been placed in baskets made of bast fibers for easy handing. The deep narrow shafts may have provided cool conditions suitable for storing food, especially for keeping cereal malts.Combining use-wear and residue data, the third mortar studied was interpreted as a multi-functional vessel for food preparation, which included pounding plant foods and brewing wheat/barley-based beer, probably with legumes and other plants as additive ingredients.
The evidence of beer brewing at Raqefet Cave 13,000 years ago provides yet another example of the complex Natufian social and ritual realms. Beer brewing may have been, at least in part, an underlying motivation to cultivate cereals in the southern Levant, supporting the beer hypothesis proposed by archaeologists more than 60 years ago."
I don't think there's any proof really for that last statement.

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[bicicleur 2]

It has long been speculated that the thirst for beer may have been the stimulus behind cereal domestication.

Well, I like beer, but let's not overestimate it.
I think Natufians liked cereals because it is easy to store and keep for a long time, as food reserve.
Beer must have been a nice by-product.

 

[Jovialis]

So, the Natufians were first to produce beer, and all before the domestication of grains. How fascinating! It was quite a labor intensive process, too. I wonder how they first figured it out? Someone put some wild grains in water, left it all out in the sun, and decided to drink the water even though it smelled funny? The rest, as they say, is history.

Who was it who, a while ago, was so insistent that it was the Indo-Europeans who invented beer, and it gave them an advantage because it made them better warriors? Next, some of these people will be saying they invented fire. Honestly, that opinion was not only in contravention of the fact that we knew it had to be tied to grains, which the early steppe people didn't have, and that we even have recipes from the great civilizations of the Middle East for making beer, but it's in contravention of basic logic or even common sense. Who would want to go into battle with drunk soldiers?

I recall that, someone also tried to say it was the equivalent to "fire water" used by Europeans on the Amerindians.

It is interesting that beer was used for spiritual applications for funerals. I guess it helped to ease the emotional pain of the bereaved.

 

[bicicleur 2]

I recall that, someone also tried to say it was the equivalent to "fire water" used by Europeans on the Amerindians.

It is interesting that beer was used for spiritual applications for funerals. I guess it helped to ease the emotional pain of the bereaved.

I guess that not only the consumption of beer, but also the production of beer was a ritual, it had to be consumed right after the brewing, they couldn't keep and store it till next event.

 

[davef]

So, the Natufians were first to produce beer, and all before the domestication of grains. How fascinating! It was quite a labor intensive process, too. I wonder how they first figured it out? Someone put some wild grains in water, left it all out in the sun, and decided to drink the water even though it smelled funny? The rest, as they say, is history.

Who was it who, a while ago, was so insistent that it was the Indo-Europeans who invented beer, and it gave them an advantage because it made them better warriors? Next, some of these people will be saying they invented fire. Honestly, that opinion was not only in contravention of the fact that we knew it had to be tied to grains, which the early steppe people didn't have, and that we even have recipes from the great civilizations of the Middle East for making beer, but it's in contravention of basic logic or even common sense. Who would want to go into battle with drunk soldiers?

I'm sure drunken indo European warriors would've had trouble driving their chariots or staying on their steeds. Lol. Next someone will say they invented horses.

 

[Salento]

I'm sure drunken indo European warriors would've had trouble driving their chariots or staying on their steeds. Lol. Next someone will say they invented horses.

But who invented the Mules?
They are Half Horses too, but they are Steriles. True!
I say that somebody invented the Half Horses! LOL