Meet the 'Witches' Who Pioneered Brewing Beer

[Wicked Blue]

1. People were brewing beer in ancient Sumeria

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/modern-recreation-ancient-sumerian-beer-00575

"Beer appears to have been an important part of Sumerian culture: the word “beer” appears in many contexts relating to religion, medicine and myth. In fact, the oldest evidence of beer comes from a 6,000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people drinking a beverage through reed straws from a communal bowl, and the oldest surviving beer recipe can be found in a 3,900-year-old ancient Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the goddess of brewing, fertility and the harvest. The poem describes how bappir, Sumerian bread, is mixed with “aromatics” to ferment in a big vat.

The production of beer in Mesopotamia is a controversial topic in archaeological circles. Some believe that beer was discovered by accident and that a piece of bread or grain could have become wet and a short time later, it began to ferment into an inebriating pulp. However, others believe that the technique of brewing beer was an early technological achievement and may have even predated the Sumerians in the lowlands of the Mesopotamian alluvial plane.

But the Sumerian’s beer-making capabilities have not just caught the attention of historians and archaeologists. Brewing companies have been trying to replicate the ancient Sumerian recipe for decades and have already recreated beers from prehistoric China and from ancient Egypt. The latest to take their hand to the challenge was the Great Lakes Brewing Company, a craft beer maker based in Ohio, which has a particular interest in artisan beer. Archaeologists teamed up with the Great Lakes Brewing Company to resurrect an ancient recipe to recreate a 5,000-year-old Sumerian beer."


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/women-making-beer_n_5b914f13e4b0cf7b003d8263

"Right from the start, brewing, a kitchen task, was women’s work. Both the Sumerians and Egyptians praised beer goddesses and associated brewing with women. In addition to Ninkasi as a woman to look up to, the Sumerians also had Kubaba. She is the only woman on the Sumerians’ list of kings, and she earned her ruling role not through birth, but through her work as a brewer. The Egyptians worshipped goddess of beer Menqet, and celebrated sun god Ra’s daughter, Sekhmet, whose bloodthirsty ways were calmed by beer."