Complex Numbers

Iraq, A Hard Place

I don't know much about this source, Ulukayin, but I'm going to assume the article is true because I want it to be true. Yeah, I'm too lazy to be skeptical today.

    5000-Year-Old Sumerian Pub and Beer Recipe Unearthed  

Archaeologists have unearthed a Sumerian pub in Iraq dating back to about 5000 years ago. Among the remains, there is also a tablet with a beer recipe.

As we all know, beer itself is far older than that. It's at least as old as civilization. Hell, some claim it's the reason for civilization, and I'm not going to argue with that.

The discovery was made in Lagash, an ancient city-state in southern Iraq, by a team of archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania in the USA and the University of Pisa in Italy. Examining the remains, the team reported that they thought the pub was around 5000 years old.

Now my inner skeptic is starting to wake up. "They thought the pub was around 5000 years old?" Did they, you know, do any dating or did they compare architectural styles or what?

It is estimated that beer was also consumed in the pub, although analyzes continue.

So they're not sure if it was actually for beer. Just that a beer recipe was there. I mean, sure, that's pretty solid circumstantial evidence; why have a recipe if you're not going to actually brew beer?

I'm giving them a pass on "analyzes;" English isn't their first language.

Archaeologist Holly Pittman of the University of Pennsylvania said that the most common beverage consumed by the Sumerians was beer. She also stated that a tablet with a recipe for beer was found in a nearby temple.

Okay, now I'm getting confused. Was that a different tablet?

So I guess I kicked my inner skeptic into action, after all. Don't get me wrong; finding the remains of any 5000-year-old building is pretty cool by itself. But did they really have to sensationalize it by making us visualize a public drinking establishment? I don't even know if those existed at the time; I was under the impression that beer was more of a sacred thing, so finding a recipe in the temple makes more sense.

Final note about where this was discovered, the ancient city of Lagash: One of my favorite breweries is Allagash, in Maine. I like them because they produce Belgian beer styles. I don't know where they got their name. But from now on, I'll be thinking of them as Al-Lagash.