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IRELAND - Archaeologists to Demonstrate Ancient Brewing

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Bianca
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« on: June 27, 2008, 01:17:51 pm »











                                    Archaeologists to Demonstrate Ancient Brewing






 
 - Dublin, Ireland,
   27th June, 2008.


Last summer two Galway archaeologists proposed a theory which made worldwide headlines. They suggested that one of the most common archaeological monuments in the Irish landscape may have been used for brewing a Bronze Age Beer. They will demonstrate and discuss their experiments and research (and distribute tasters of the brew) into the enigmatic site that is the fulacht fiadh at the World Archaeological Congress ‘Fringe' at UCD on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th July.



Billy Quinn and Declan Moore, two archaeologists with Moore Archaeological & Environmental Services (Moore Group) in Galway, believe that an extensive brewing tradition existed in Ireland as far back as 2500 BC. These ubiquitous monuments, which are visible in the landscape as small, horseshoe-shaped grass-covered mounds, have been conventionally thought of by archaeologists as ancient cooking spots, saunas or industrial sites. However, Quinn and Moore believe that they may have also been used as breweries.

According to Quinn 'the tradition of brewing in Ireland has a long history, we think that the fulacht may have been used as a kitchen sink, for cooking, dying, many uses, but that a primary use was the brewing of ale.' The two set out to investigate their theory in a journey which took them across Europe in search of further evidence.

To prove their theory, Quinn & Moore set out to recreate the process. They used an old wooden trough filled with water and added heated stones. After achieving an optimum temperature of 60-70°C they began to add milled barley and after approx 45 minutes simply baled the final product into fermentation vessels. They added natural wild flavourings (taking care to avoid anything toxic or hallucinogenic) and then added yeast after cooling the vessels in a bath of cold water for several hours.

According to Moore 'including the leftover liquid we could easily have produced up to 300 litres of this most basic ale'. Through their experiments, they discovered that the process of brewing ale in a fulacht using hot rock technology is a simple process. To produce the ale took only a few hours, followed by a few-days wait to allow for fermentation.

Quinn and Moore point out that although their theory is based solely on circumstantial and experimental evidence, they believe that, although probably multifunctional in nature, a primary use of the fulacht fiadh was for brewing beer.





For additional information on ancient Irish beer, contact Declan or Billy or visit

www.mooregroup.ie/beer/index.html or Moore Group's blog at mooregroup.wordpress.com/.

A selection of photographs can be viewed at

www.mooregroup.ie/beer/gallery/index.html.
Larger versions can be provided on request.




ABOUT MOOREGROUP - MOORE GROUP is a multi-disciplinary environmental, planning and heritage resource management consultancy providing pragmatic development advisory services. The company specialises in consultancy in the fields of ecology, archaeology, both marine and terrestrial, as well as architectural conservation consultancy and related services. Declan Moore (Managing Director) and Billy Quinn are senior archaeologists with Moore Group and have extensive archaeological experience throughout Ireland.


ABOUT WAC 6 - The World Archaeological Congress (WAC) is the only representative, fully international organization of practicing archaeologists. Founded in 1986, WAC encourages open dialogue among all people genuinely concerned about the past, including scholars from under-represented parts of the world, First Nations people, and descendent communities whose pasts are told by archaeologists. One of WAC's primary functions is to hold an international congress every four to five years to offer discussion of new archaeological research as well as archaeological policy, practice and politics. Previous congresses were held in the United States, South Africa, India, Venezuela and England.





Ireland has the honour of hosting the

SIXTH WORLD ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONGRESS

from 29th June to 4th July 2008,
to be held in Dublin.

- END -





Contact Information:
Moore Group

Corporate House
Ballybrit Business Park
Galway

Contact Person:
Declan Moore
Managing Director
Phone: =35391765640
email: email

Web: mooregroup.wordpress.com/
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Bianca
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« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2008, 01:22:02 pm »











                                                    Brewing archaeology





Posted on March 12, 2008
by mooregroup

The latest edition of the anthropology (in the American sense) blog carnival Four Stone Hearth came courtesy of Archaeoporn while we were away, and we’re delighted that our post on Corofin is linked to. Thanks once again to Archaeoporn for including us. The only problem with blog carnivals is that you just keep meandering the web - it leads you down many roads but certainly provides fruitful and fascinating reading.

On another matter, three weeks ago we responded to a query from our friend Chris at BLTP.

Is there anyway of comparing fulacht fiadh (is there a phonetic pronuciation guide of this for us nongaelic speakers?) to other “grain heavy” hotspots on sites. ie food stores , grinding stones etc or does the age of the sites obscure the evidence so much? Did any other ancient cultures use a similar method?

We thought the response merited a full entry.

Clear chemical evidence for brewing in Sumeria at Godin Tepe (in modern day Iran) comes from fermentation vessels where there were pits in the ground noted by the excavators – and in the Hymn to Ninkasi (1800 BC) there is the following reference to pits in the ground:





You are the one who handles the dough,
[and] with a big shovel,
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with sweet aromatics,
Ninkasi, You are the one who handles
the dough, [and] with a big shovel,
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with [date]-honey.

You are the one who bakes the bappir
in the big oven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,
Ninkasi, you are the one who bakes
the bappir in the big oven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,

You are the one who waters the malt
set on the ground,
The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,
Ninkasi, you are the one who waters the malt
set on the ground,
The noble dogs keep away even the potentates.

You are the one who soaks the malt in a jar
The waves rise, the waves fall.
Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks
the malt in a jar
The waves rise, the waves fall.

You are the one who spreads the cooked
mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes.
Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads
the cooked mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes.

You are the one who holds with both hands
the great sweet wort,
Brewing [it] with honey and wine
(You the sweet wort to the vessel)
Ninkasi, (…)
(You the sweet wort to the vessel)

The filtering vat, which makes
a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on [top of]
a large collector vat.
Ninkasi, the filtering vat,
which makes a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on [top of]
a large collector vat.
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Bianca
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« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2008, 01:23:48 pm »









So clearly, at the very least (from Ian Hornsey’s ‘A History of Beer and Brewing’), “bappir” dough was being mixed with “sweet aromatics” using a “big shovel… in a pit”. Meaning that a pit was integral to the brewing process in the Fertile Crescent at least 5500 years ago. Although the malting took place elsewhere and the filtering was carried out in a filter vat which led to a large collector vat, there is no description of how the temperature was controlled during the brewing! Now, admittedly, it would be idle speculation to posit that the pit was used again in the process for heating the wort, but our reading of the Hymn to Ninkasi certainly excited us during the research (and we were delighted to meet Miguel Civil who translated the Hymn - and of course yourself, Pete and Max).



As we point out in our article:

Until recently the hot rock method was used by Rauchenfels brewery, Bavaria. Here the brewers used greywacke. Sahti, an unhopped ale still served at rural feasts in Finland, is prepared by immersing hot stones into a wooden mash tun to raise the temperature and create a simple ale that is flavoured by filtering it through juniper branches. The tradition has been traced back over 500 years.

Regarding comparisons with ‘grain rich’ sites such as processing areas etc.., we’re not experts on that, but we are working with some people on a suite of tests which could be carried out at fulacht sites. When we have more info on that we’ll post it here. But as the Archaeobotanists point out further analysis of micro-residues from fulacht fiadh sites is necessary and more detailed testing and analysis methodologies need to be formulated. Frequently these sites are excavated with little thought as to their purpose and simply removed as a matter of course. Hopefully, we’ll have instigated a little more forethought and the use of more insightful and well planned research objectives in the field.

Fulacht is pronounced ‘Full-acht’ (like the ‘acht’ in ‘Achtung Minen’ or ‘Achtung Britischer Schvienhund’ or ‘Achtung Baby’) and ‘fiadh’ is pronounced ‘fia’ (like ‘see-ya’).

And (just looking through our stats) who is searching google for the ‘36ft human skeleton’ - there’s no such thing!

 



Filed under: archaeology, beer, fulacht fiadh |

Tagged: archaeology, brewing, fulacht fiadh, Ninkasi



http://mooregroup.wordpress.com/category/beer/
« Last Edit: June 27, 2008, 01:25:02 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
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