An Egyptian-American team is searching for a high-production brewery believed to be more than 5,000 years old.
A high-production brewery believed to be more than 5,000 years old was discovered by a team of archaeologists at a burial site in southern Egypt, the tourism ministry said Saturday.
The site of several “units” containing about 40 clay pots arranged in two rows was found at North Abydos, Sohag, by a joint Egyptian-American team, the ministry said in a statement. his Facebook page.
The brewery seems to date back to the time of King Narmer, who said that the general secretary of the High Council of Antiquities of Egypt, Mostafa Waziry, said that he believed that world’s oldest high production brewery ”.
Narmer, who ruled more than 5,000 years ago, founded the First Dynasty and united Upper and Lower Egypt.
British archaeologists first discovered the existence of the brewery in the early 20th century but its location has never been confirmed, the statement said.
The joint Egyptian-American team was “able to reset and find out what was there,” he said.
According to Waziry, the brewery has eight large areas that were used as “units for beer production”.
In each section there were about 40 clay pots arranged in two rows.
A mixture of grains and water was used to heat liquor in the sheets, with each dish “held in place by levers made of clay placed directly in the shape of rings”.
A hand-drawn image released by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on February 13, 2021, shows the remains of a series of boats used for beer liquefaction. [Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP]‘Royal ceremonies’
Archaeologist Matthew Adams of New York University, who is leading the mission with Deborah Vischak of Princeton University, said studies have shown that beer was largely extracted, with about 22,400 liters made at the same time.
The brewery may have been “built in this place specifically to house the royal ceremonies that took place within the burial facilities of the kings of Egypt”, the statement said. saying.
“Evidence for the use of beer in sacrificial rituals was found during excavations at these facilities,” the statement said.
There is no evidence of beer production in ancient Egypt, and past discoveries have shed light on such production.
Pieces of pottery used by Egyptians to make beer and dating back 5,000 years were found on a construction site in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced in 2015.
Abydos, where the latest find was made, has uncovered many treasures over the years and is famous for its temples, such as Seti I.
In 2000, a team of U.S. archaeologists unearthed light in Abydos the earliest example of an ancient Egyptian solar bar, dating back to the first Pharaonic family about 5,000 years ago.
Egypt has announced a number of new discoveries that it hopes will boost tourism, a region that has suffered several blows – from a 2011 revolution to the coronavirus pandemic.
A mission working near Alexandria recently found several bodies about 2,000 years ago with gold-tongued amulets – believed to have been placed in the mouths of the dead to ensure they could speak in the afterlife .
Authorities had expected 15 million tourists to visit Egypt in 2020, compared to 13 million the previous year, but the virus has kept holidaymakers away.