Anthro 212 – The Past on Tap: The Archaeology of Fermented Beverages
This course provides an introduction to the archaeological, historical, physical, ethnographic and experimental evidence for the production and consumption of beer, wine, and other fermented beverages in the distant past.
Sometime between the end of the last Ice Age and the beginning of plant and animal domestication humans began to experiment with fermenting a range of substances, culminating in the rich diversity of alcoholic beverages found across the globe today. This course provides an introduction to the archaeological, historical, physical, ethnographic and experimental evidence for the production and consumption of beer, wine, and other fermented beverages. An introduction to the basic principles of fermentation will be followed by detailed case studies drawn from different archaeological contexts which will be the subject of in-class experimental brewing demonstrations. The course will close with a discussion of the impact of the study of ancient alcohol on the craft beverage movement. No prerequisites!