Beer in the Bronze age: Evidence shows Egyptians brewed up a party in ancient Tel Aviv

Daniel K. Eisenbud, Jerusalem Post, 29-03-2015

Fragments of ancient pottery vessels used to prepare beer, unearthed during recent salvage excavations in downtown Tel Aviv, reveal that the city’s reputed party atmosphere is thousands of years old, the Antiquities Authority announced Sunday. Moreover, according to the authority, the excavations, conducted prior to the construction of office buildings by the Rubinstein company, provide evidence indicating the presence of an ancient Egyptian population from more than 5,000 years ago. 

“We found 17 pits in the excavations, which were used to store agricultural produce in the Early Bronze Age [3500-3000-BCE],” said Diego Barkan, director of the authority’s excavation. “Among the hundreds of pottery sherds that characterize the local culture, a number of fragments of large ceramic basins were discovered that were made in an Egyptian tradition, and were used to prepare beer.” “The vessels were manufactured with straw temper, or some other organic material in order to strengthen them, a method not customary in the local pottery industry,” he continued. Barkan added that similar vessels were found in an Egyptian administrative building that was excavated in southern Israel’s Ein Habesor moshav.

More: http://www.jpost.com/