Uncorking the Past

by Patrick E. McGovern

  Valamoti, S. M. 2007. “Grape-Pressings from Northern Greece: The Earliest Wine in the Aegean?” Antiquity 81: 54–61.

  SEVEN. THE SWEET, THE BITTER, AND THE AROMATIC IN THE NEW WORLD

  Allen, C. J. 2002. The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean Community. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

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  Bruman, J. H. 2000. Alcohol in Ancient Mexico. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

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  Dillehay, T. D. 2000. The Settlement of the Americas: A New Prehistory. New York: Basic Books.

  ———, et al. 2007. “Preceramic Adoption of Peanut, Squash, and Cotton in Northern Peru.” Science 316 (5833): 1890–93.

  ———, et al. 2008. “Monte Verde: Seaweed, Food, Medicine, and the Peopling of South America.” Science 320 (5877): 784–86.

  Dillehay, T. D., and Rossen, J. 2002. “Plant Food and Its Implications for the Peopling of the New World: A View from South America.” In The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World, ed. N. G. Jablonski, 237–53. San Francisco: California Academy of Sciences.

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  Goldstein, D. J., and Coleman, R. C. 2004. “Schinus molle L. (Anacardiaceae) Chicha Production in the Central Andes.” Economic Botany 58 (4): 523–29.

  Hadingham, E. 1987. Lines to the Mountain Gods: Nazca and the Mysteries of Peru. New York: Random House.

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  Havard, V. 1896. “Drink Plants of the North American Indians.” Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 23 (2): 33–46.

  Henderson, J. S., et al. 2007. “Chemical and Archaeological Evidence for the Earliest Cacao Beverages.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104 (48): 18937–40.

  Henderson, J. S., and R. A. Joyce. 2006. “The Development of Cacao Beverages in Formative Mesoamerica.” In Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao, ed. C. L. McNeil, 140–53. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

  Jennings, J. 2005. “La chichera y el patrón: Chicha and the Energetics of Feasting in the Prehistoric Andes.” Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 14: 241–59.

  ———, et al. 2005. “ ‘Drinking Beer in a Blissful Mood’: Alcohol Production, Operational Chains, and Feasting in the Ancient World.” Current Anthropology 46 (2): 275–304.

  Kidder, A. V. 1932. The Artifacts of Pecos. New Haven: Phillips Academy by the Yale University Press.

  La Barre, W. 1938. “Native American Beers.” American Anthropologist 40 (2): 224–34.

  Lothrop, S. K. 1956. “Peruvian Pacchas and Keros.” American Antiquity 21 (3): 233–43.

  Mann, C. C. 2005. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New York: Knopf.

  McNeil, C. L., ed. 2006. Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

  Moore, J. D. 1989. “Pre-Hispanic Beer in Coastal Peru: Technology and Social Context of Prehistoric Production.” American Anthropologist 91 (3): 682–95.

  Moseley, M. E.1992. The Incas and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of Peru. New York: Thames & Hudson.

  ———, et al. 2005. “Burning Down the Brewery: Establishing and Evacuating an Ancient Imperial Colony at Cerro Baúl, Peru.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102 (48): 17264–71.

  Perry, L., et al. 2007. “Starch Fossils and the Domestication and Dispersal of Chili Peppers (Capsicum spp. L.) in the Americas.” Science 315 (5814): 986–88.

  Schurr, T. G. 2008. “The Peopling of the Americas as Revealed by Molecular Genetic Studies.” In Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (www.els.ne).

  Sims, M. 2006. “Sequencing the First Americans.” American Archaeology 10: 37–43.

  Smalley, J., and Blake, M. 2003. “Sweet Beginnings: Stalk Sugar and the Domestication of Maize.” Current Anthropology 44 (5): 675–703.

  Staller, J. E., R. H. Tykot, and B. F. Benz, eds. 2006. Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize. Amsterdam: Elsevier Academic.

  EIGHT. AFRICA SERVES UP ITS MEADS, WINES, AND BEERS

  Arthur, J. W. 2003. “Brewing Beer: Status, Wealth and Ceramic Use Alteration among the Gamo of South-Western Ethiopia.” World Archaeology 34 (3): 516–28.

  Barker, G. 2006. The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory: Why Did Foragers Become Farmers? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  Bryceson, D. F., ed. 2002. Alcohol in Africa: Mixing Business, Pleasure, and Politics. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

  Carlson, R. G.1990. “Banana Beer, Reciprocity, and Ancestor Propitiation among the Haya of Bukova, Tanzania.” Ethnology 29: 297–311.

  Chazan, M., and M. Lehner. 1990. “An Ancient Analogy: Pot Baked Bread in Ancient Egypt.” Paléorient 16 (2): 21–35.

  Davies, N. de G. 1927. Two Ramesside Tombs at Thebes. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

  Edwards, D. N. 1996. “Sorghum, Beer, and Kushite Society.” Norwegian Archaeological Review 29: 65–77.

  Geller, J. 1993. “Bread and Beer in Fourth-Millennium Egypt.” Food and Foodways 5 (3): 255–67.

  Haaland, R. 2007. “Porridge and Pot, Bread and Oven: Food Ways and Symbolism in Africa and the Near East from the Neolithic to the Present.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 17 (2): 165–82.

  Hillman, G. C. 1989. “Late Palaeolithic Plant Foods from Wadi Kubbaniya in Upper Egypt: Dietary Diversity, Infant Weaning, and Seasonality in a Riverine Environment.” In Foraging and Farming: The Evolution of Plant Exploitation, ed. D. R. Harris and G. C. Hillman, 207–39. London: Unwin Hyman.

  Holl, A. 2004. Saharan Rock Art: Archaeology of Tassilian Pastoralist Iconography. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.

  Huetz de Lemps, A. 2001. Boissons et civilisations en Afrique. Bordeaux: University of Bordeaux Press.

  Huffman, T. N. 1983. “The Trance Hypothesis and the Rock Art of Zimbabwe.” South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series 4: 49–53.

  Karp, I. 1987. “Beer Drinking and Social Experience in an African Society: An Essay in Formal Sociology.” In Explorations in African Systems of Thought, ed. I. Karp and C. S. Bird, 83–119. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

  Lejju, B. J., P. Robertshaw, and D. Taylor. 2006. “Africa’s Earliest Bananas?” Journal of Archaeological Science 33: 102–13.

  Lewis-Williams, J. D., and T. A. Dowson. 1990. “Through the Veil: San Rock Paintings and the Rock Face.” South African Archaeological Bulletin 45: 5–16.

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  Maksoud, S. A., N. el Hadidi, and W. M. Wafaa. 1994. “Beer from the Early Dynasties (3500–3400 cal B.C.) of Upper Egypt, Detected by Archaeochemical Methods.” Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 3: 219–24.

  Mazar, A., et al. 2008. “Iron Age Beehives at Tel Rehov in the Jordan Valley.” Antiquity 82 (317): 629–39.

  McAllister, P. A. 2006. Xhosa Beer Drinking Rituals: Power, Practice and Performance in the South African Rural Periphery. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic.

  Morse, R. A. 1980. Making
Mead (Honey Wine): History, Recipes, Methods, and Equipment. Ithaca, NY: Wicwas.

  Netting, R. M. 1964. “Beer as a Locus of Value among the West African Kofyar.” American Anthropolologist 66: 375–84.

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  Phillipson, D. W. 2005. African Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  Platt, B. 1955. “Some Traditional Alcoholic Beverages and Their Importance in Indigenous African Communities.” Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 14: 115–24.

  Platter, J., and E. Platter. 2002. Africa Uncorked: Travels in Extreme Wine Territory. San Francisco: Wine Appreciation Guild.

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  Samuel, D. 1996. “Archaeology of Egyptian Beer.” Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists 54 (1): 3–12.

  Samuel, D., and P. Bolt. 1995. “Rediscovering Ancient Egyptian Beer.” Brewers’ Guardian, December, 27–31.

  Sangree, W. H. 1962. “The Social Functions of Beer Drinking in Bantu Tiriki.” In Society, Culture, and Drinking Patterns, ed. D. J. Pittman and C. R. Snyder, 6–21. New York: Wiley.

  Saul, M. 1981. “Beer, Sorghum, and Women: Production for the Market in Rural Upper Volta.” Africa 51: 746–64.

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  Willis, J. 2002. Potent Brews: A Social History of Alcohol in East Africa, 1850–1999. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.

  NINE. ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

  Acocella, J. 2008. “Annals of Drinking: A Few Too Many.” New Yorker, May 26, 32–37.

  Bowirrat, A., and M. Oscar-Berman. 2005. “Relationship between Dopaminergic Neurotransmission, Alcoholism, and Reward Deficiency Syndrome.” American Journal of Medical Genetics 132B (1): 29–37.

  Brochet, F., and D. Dubourdieu. 2001. “Wine Descriptive Language Supports Cognitive Specificity of Chemical Senses.” Brain and Language 77: 187–96.

  Castriota-Scanderberg, A., et al. 2005. “The Appreciation of Wine by Sommeliers: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Study of Sensory Integration.” Neuroimage 25: 570–78.

  Diamond, J. M. 1997. Why Is Sex Fun? The Evolution of Human Sexuality. New York: Basic Books.

  ———. 2005. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: Norton.

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  Wolf, F. A., and U. Heberlein. 2003. “Invertebrate Models of Drug Abuse.” Journal of Neurobiology 54: 161–78.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  THE SCOPE OF THIS BOOK goes far beyond what I attempted in my book Ancient Wine, which focused on the Middle East. That was like planting and tending a carefully laid-out vineyard. In attempting to sketch out a worldwide overview of fermented beverages, reaching back to the beginning of our species, and in trying to understand why humans have had a millennia-long love affair with these drinks, I felt more as though I was trying to tame a vast jungle in this book. To make sense of the lines of evidence from many diverse disciplines, I called on the advice of friends, colleagues, and fermented-beverage aficionados. They helped me to decipher the inner workings of the human brain. They directed my attention to small archaeological details buried in the literature that cried out for consideration. They taught me the intricacies of making and tasting alcoholic beverages. They helped me catalogue the vast resources of sugar-rich plants ripe for fermenting in every corner of the earth, which our ancestors ingeniously converted into delicious, mind-altering drinks.

  Among others, I am indebted to the following archaeologists, archaeobotanists, chemists, enologists, foodies, geneticists, chocolatiers, historians, neuroscientists, physical anthropologists, beer makers, winemakers, and mead makers: Brian Anderson, Fredo Arias-King, Maria Aubet, Ginny Badler, Michael Balick, Steve Batiuk, Rostilav Berezkin, Sam Calagione, Phil Chase, Michael Chazan, Guangsheng Cheng, Mark Chien, Elizabeth Childs-Johnson, Janet Chrzan, Elin Danien, Irina Delusina, the late Keith DeVries, Michael Dietler, Thomas Dillehay, Merryn Dineley, Paul Draper, Pascal Durand, Clark Erickson, Brian Fagan, Hui Fang, Gary Feinman, Nichola Fletcher, Mareille Flitsch, Mike Gerhart, David Goldstein, J. J. Hantsch, Harald Hauptmann, John Henderson, Ellen Herscher, Nick Hopkins, H. T. Huang, the late Michael Jackson, Ron Jackson, Justin Jennings, Chris Jones, Rosemary Joyce, John Kantner, Michael Karam, Diana Kennedy, Tony Kentuck, Eva Koch, Bob Koehl, Carolyn Koehler, Peter Kupfer, Karl Lamberg-Karlovsky, Al Leonard, Caryn Lerman, Li Liu, Huiqin Ma, Victor Mair, Daniel Master, Simon Martin, Jim Matthieu, Ami Mazar, James McCann, Jon McGee, Rod McIntosh, Steve Menke, Ian Morris, the late Roger Morse, Hugh Myrick, Reinder Neef, Max Nelson, Marilyn Norcini, Charles O’Brien, Rafael Ocete, John Oleson, Deborah Olzewski, Don Ortner, Ruth Palmer, Giancarlo Panarella, Fabio Parasecoli, Joel Parka, Brian Peasnall, Wayne Pitard, Greg Possehl, Maricel Presilla, Nancy Rigberg, Gary Rollefson, Mike Rosenberg, Gabriele Rossi-Osmida, Karen Rubinson, Kathleen Ryan, Ken Schramm, Fritz Schumann, Tad Schurr, Bryan Selders, Kirsten Shilakes, Richard Smart, Daniela Soleri, Larry Stager, Hans-Peter Stika, George Taber, Jigen Tang, André Tchernia, Sean Thackrey, Matthew Tomlinson, Jordi Tresserras, Jean Turfa, Anne Underhill, Michael Vickers, Mary Voigt, Alexei Vranich, Rich Wagner, Ellen Wang, Nina Wemyss, Fred Wendorf, Ryan Williams, Justin Willis, Warren Winiarski, Luke Wohlers, Jim Wright, Juzhong Zhang, and Xiuqin Zhou.

  My greatest source of inspiration and help in exploring the world of ancient fermented beverages came from the dedicated corps of enthusiastic chemists who have served as research associates in the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania Museum over the past thirty years, beginning with the late Rudy Michel and continuing with the late Don Glusker and Larry Exner and now with Gretchen Hall and Ted Davidson. They were backed up by other scientific colleagues in laboratories around the world, including Rosa Arroyo-García, the late Curt Beck, Eric Butrym, Gary Crawford, Wafik el-Deiry, James Dickson, Anne-Marie Hanssen, Gar Harbottle, Jeff Honovich, Jeff Hurst, Sven Isaaksen, the late Bob Kime, Joe Lambert, Rosa Lamuela-Raventós, Leo McCloskey, Naomi Miller, Armen Mirzoian, Robert Mo
reau, Mark Nesbitt, Andy Newberg, Alberto Nuñez, Chris Petersen, Michael Richards, Vernon Singleton, Ken Suslick, José Vouillamoz, Wenge Wang, Andy Waterhouse, Wilma Wetterstrom, José Zapater, “Jimmy” Zhao, and Daniel Zohary.

  One’s appreciation and understanding of fermented beverages can be enormously enhanced by traveling the world, tasting and talking as one goes. I have been most fortunate to visit some of the principal wine-producing areas of the world with the assistance of various local institutions and individuals: Italy (Associazione Nazionale Città del Vino), France (Musées Gallo-Romains de Lyon-Fourvière), Germany (University of Mainz), Spain (Fundación para la Cultura del Vino), and California (COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, as well as many of the state’s talented winemakers). Many other universities, institutions, and individuals have also eased my way along the fermented-beverage paths of the world, from China and Tibet to Turkey and Greece to California and New Mexico, with numerous stops in between. There is much left to explore.

  In addition to being supported by the University of Pennsylvania and its museum, our research continues to receive backing from a wide range of institutions (most recently, the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, La Trobe University in Australia, and the Institute for Aegean Prehistory) and private individuals who have recognized the importance and fascination of fermented beverages in the development of human bioculture.

  At the University of California Press, my editor, Blake Edgar, took an enthusiastic interest in the subject of ancient (and modern) fermented beverages by keeping me apprised of the latest research and shepherding the manuscript through the publication process. I am also extremely grateful to Erika Bűky, Amy Cleary, Laura Harger, John Ricco, Lisa Tauber, and many other staff members and freelancers who have made the book a reality.