These pottery remains might not look like much to the untrained eye, but they are in fact recently discovered elements from what may be the world’s oldest beer factory.
Located in the ancient Egyptian burial ground of Abydos, the collection of enormous units of pottery basins that heated the mixture of water and grains to make beer perhaps dates to the reign of King Narmer (about 3150 BCE). Why have a beer factory in a royal graveyard? — Probably because massive sacrificial rites involving beer were required by the Egyptian rulers to propitiate the God Osiris, judge of the souls of the dead in the afterlife.
Beer has long been known to have been an indispensable part of the Egyptian diet. It first evolved as a porridge-like mixture somewhere between bread and the liquid we today consider beer, and was consumed and appreciated by all levels of society. As an inscription from 2200 BCE found at Dendera (an important cult center of an Egyptian Goddess associated with beer) reads: “the mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with beer”.
Egyptians were so grateful for the beverage that they planned to continue drinking beer in the afterlife. Many tombs reveal images of beer, jars of beer, inscriptions about beer, and even small dioramas of beer, such as the one shown on the second slide showing a model of a brewery and a bakery workshop in the tomb of Mekete from the Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 BCE).
Source(s): “World’s oldest known beer factory may have been unearthed in Egypt,” _The Guardian_, February 13, 2021. “Beer in the Ancient World,” _Ancient History Encyclopedia_, Joshua J. Mark, March 2, 2011. _At the Mummies Ball: Egyptology Blog_, “A Toast With ‘Beer for Eternity,’ August 10, 2017.
