Beer

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2021

The production of alcoholic beverages is connected to a wide range of activities associated with growing social complexity. Beer production has a long history in the southern Levant, where the first evidence appeared during the later Epipalaeolithic period. However, there is meager evidence between then and the Early Bronze Age period, when advanced regional trade systems developed. To fill this gap, the current paper presents evidence for beer production and consumption based on microfossil analysis of two ceramic strainers unearthed at two Chalcolithic sites: Tel Tsaf (ca. 5200-4700 cal. BC), a settlement site in the Jordan Valley with evidence for large scale storage and long-distance ties, and Peqi'in Cave (ca. 4500-3900 cal. BC), a burial site in the Upper Galilee. The microfossils (phytoliths, starch granules, yeast cells, and fibers) indicate that both strainers once contained fermented beverages made from Triticeae (wheat/barley), Panicoideae, and Cyperus tubers. These results suggest that beer production and consumption using strainers may have been regularly practiced during different phases of the Chalcolithic, and beer appears to have played an important role in various social settings for communication among social groups as well as between the living and the deceased.

Praehistorische Zeitschrift, 2019

The two studied Neolithic sites in northern Germany, Oldenburg LA232 and Oldenburg LA191, yielded remains of residential architecture and evidence of every-day activities, including food storage and processing. None of the excavated features were attributed a symbolic or ritual meaning. However, in more than one case relatively large amounts of food have been found in contexts unlikely to contain food, even as a result of post-depositional disturbance. These contexts are postholes, and this phenomenon is also seen at some other sites in the region from this and later periods. Was food intentionally deposited in these features and was it given a different meaning? Was it transformed into a symbolic object, perhaps with a role in a ritual performed during house construction or demolition? We try to answer these questions by studying the quantity and taxonomic range of the plant remains recovered from these and other plant-rich deposits at the two sites, and by analysing the nature of ...

2025

Out, W.A., García-Granero, J.J., Andreasen, M.H., C.N. Patus, W. Kirleis, G. Barfod , H. Andersen 2025. Plant use at Funnel Beaker sites: combined macro- and microremains analysis at the Early Neolithic site of Frydenlund, Denmark (ca. 3600 bce). Veget Hist Archaeobot 34, pp.177–203. Understanding the neolithisation process in northern Europe requires detailed knowledge of both the type of crop plants as well as gathered food plants from Neolithic Funnel Beaker sites (4000–2800 BCE). However, although many sites from this culture are known, significant gaps remain in our knowledge on which taxa were used as well as on how plant food was prepared. Here, we present the results of combined plant macro- and microremains from the Early Neolithic site of Frydenlund in present-day Denmark. The macroremains include carbonised seeds, fruits and underground storage organs from a variety of contexts. The microremains are phytoliths and starch granules recovered from fourteen grinding stones that are among the oldest from Denmark as well as the first from this region analysed using state-of-the-art methods. The data are discussed in the context of an updated overview of crop spectra, evidence of gathered plants and of plant food preparation techniques at Funnel Beaker sites in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. The results from the Early Neolithic site of Frydenlund show that the macroremains assemblage was dominated by Triticum turgidum ssp. durum (durum wheat), T. turgidum ssp. dicoccum (emmer wheat) and Hordeum vulgare var. nudum (naked barley), which apart from durum wheat fits the observed pattern from other Funnel Beaker sites in northwestern Europe. These crops were presumably cultivated separately as summer crops. Corylus avellana (hazel), Rubus fruticosus (blackberry) and R. idaeus (raspberry) were probably consumed as well, and possibly R. caesius (dewberry). While cereals were abundant in the macroremains assemblage, the microremains from the grinding stones indicate that these were used for grinding solely wild plants. The carbonised cereal grain fragments are therefore interpreted as possible evidence of cereal consumption mainly in the form of porridge or gruel, which corresponds well to comparable finds at other contemporary northwestern European sites. Future analysis of comparable high-quality data on combined macro- and microremains analysis is necessary to further refine our understanding of plant diets and plant food preparation techniques of the Funnel Beaker Culture as well as during the neolithisation process.

The two studied Neolithic sites in northern Germany, Oldenburg LA232 and Oldenburg LA191, yielded remains of residential architecture and evidence of everyday activities, including food storage and processing. None of the excavated features were attributed a symbolic or ritual meaning. However, in more than one case relatively large amounts of food have been found in contexts unlikely to contain food, even as a result of post-depositional disturbance. These contexts are postholes, and this phenomenon is also seen at some other sites in the region from this and later periods. Was food intentionally deposited in these features and was it given a different meaning? Was it transformed into a symbolic object, perhaps with a role in a ritual performed during house construction or demolition? We try to answer these questions by studying the quantity and taxonomic range of the plant remains recovered from these and other plant-rich deposits at the two sites, and by analysing the nature of the context and of the associated ecofacts and artefacts. We highlight possible symbolic or ritual aspects of behaviour by the residents of the two Neolithic settlements and we put forward the idea of a potential house closure act in which plants seem to have played a part.