CAIRO | A large-scale production brewery, said to be “the oldest” in the world, was discovered in Egypt by an Egyptian-American team at the archaeological site of Abydos, the Cairo tourism ministry said on Saturday.
Beer, a favorite drink of ancient Egypt, was brewed at this funeral site, according to a statement released by the ministry on its Facebook page.
“The Egyptian-American archaeological mission, led by Matthew Adams of New York University and Deborah Vischak of Princeton University, discovered what appears to be the world’s oldest large-scale production brewery,” said the press release.
The beer factory “probably dates back to the era of King Narmer,” said the secretary general of the Egyptian General Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, quoted in the text.
Narmer is the first king who united Upper and Lower Egypt. He ruled over 5,000 years ago and is considered by some to be the founder of the First Dynasty of Pharaohs.
British archaeologists had made discoveries at the beginning of the 20th century which led them to believe that an old brewery was in the area but they had not been able to locate it precisely.
The Egyptian-American team succeeded in doing so.
According to Mr. Waziri, the brewery was made up of eight large areas used as “production units”. Each area contained about 40 large terracotta basins arranged in two rows.
A mixture of grains and water was heated in the containers, “installed vertically in the form of rings”, according to the same source.
Dr Adams said in the statement that studies showed that beer was produced there on a large scale with some 22,400 liters produced “at the same time”. The brewery “could have been built there specifically for the royal rituals that took place inside the funeral sites of the kings of Egypt”.
The evidence for beer-making in ancient Egypt is not new.
Fragments of pottery used by the Egyptians, more than 5,000 years old, including large ceramic basins that were used to produce beer, were discovered at a construction site in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Authority announced in 2015. of Antiquities.
Known for its temples, the archaeological site of Abydos, in the province of Sohag, has unveiled many treasures over the years.
Egypt has announced major archaeological discoveries in recent months and hopes that they would revive tourism, a key sector undermined today by the coronavirus pandemic.