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In the Land of Ninkasi tells the story of the world's first great beer culture. In this authoritative but light-hearted account, archaeologist Tate Paulette brings the world of ancient Mesopotamian beer into vivid focus. He weaves together insights drawn from archaeological remains, ancient works of art, and cuneiform texts and pulls the reader, step-by-step, into the process of analysis and interpretation, explaining exactly what we know and how we know it. Readers will learn about the beers themselves and how they were made, consumed, and stored, and how to recreate modern versions of Mesopotamian brews.
List of contents
- Illustrations
- Prologue
- Note about ancient languages
- Timeline
- 1: Beer in world history
- 2: The land between the rivers
- 3: Beers and brewing ingredients
- 4: Brewing technologies and techniques
- 5: Brewers and brewing spaces
- 6: Drinkers and drinking practices
- 7: The beer-drinking experience
- Epilogue: Reviving an ancient art
- Acknowledgments
- Appendix A: Brew-it-yourself: Gilgamash
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- References
- Index
About the author
Tate Paulette is an archaeologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of History at North Carolina State University. He is editor of the forthcoming A Cultural History of Wine in Antiquity.
Summary
A feast for beer geeks and history buffs alike, In the Land of Ninkasi tells the story of the world's first great beer culture.
In this authoritative but light-hearted account of beers gone by, archaeologist Tate Paulette brings the famous "land between the rivers" back to life in vivid detail. We meet not only the beers of ancient Mesopotamia, but also the people who brewed them and drank them, the places where these people lived and worked, the taverns and temples and tombs where they did their drinking, the stories they told about beer, their preferred styles of drinking, their brewing equipment and drinking paraphernalia, the gods and goddesses who governed their lives and who were also partial to a drink.
Rigorous in its scholarship, yet staunchly unpretentious in style, this beer-centered travel guide for a trip back in time offers a clear roadmap into the ancient source material for those who are new to Mesopotamia. Paulette weaves together insights drawn from archaeological remains, ancient works of art, and cuneiform texts. He uses a series of narrative vignettes and thought experiments to interrogate specific pieces of evidence and pull the reader, step-by-step, into the process of analysis and interpretation, explaining exactly what we know and how we know it.
Readers will come away with a new appreciation for the depth of our knowledge about this early beer-drinking culture, painstakingly pieced together by generations of dedicated scholars. They will also encounter plenty of unknowns: enigmatic evidence that defies explanation, unresolved debates, puzzles that remain to be solved. For those who prefer their history in liquid form, Paulette also recounts some of his own experiences recreating ancient beer and provides a brew-it-yourself recipe to try at home.
Additional text
It is, undoubtedly, the most important book published in the field of beer history for some time, because it looks at the whole 2,000-year story of brewing in the land between the Euphrates and the Tigris with the sceptical eyes of a scholar who is an expert in Middle East archaeology, knowledgeable enough about the ancient languages spoken in the region to be able to explain them to a lay person, and also knowledgeable enough about brewing to have participated in an attempt with professionals to recreate Sumerian beer.
