Imagine a warm brew of lager so heady you had to plunge a straw through the thick surface scum to get to the fermented liquor a.
Welcome to the favored
brew of ancient Egypt's New Kingdom; a 3,200-year-old barley beer that a
new archaeological find this month is shedding new light on.
A Japanese team headed by
Jiro Kondo of Waseda University stumbled on the tomb of ancient
beer-maker Khonso Em Heb while cleaning the courtyard of another tomb at
the Thebes necropolis in the Egyptian city of Luxor.
The tomb, replete with highly colored frescoes, is being hailed as one of the most significant finds of recent times.
Egypt's antiquities
minister Mohamed Ibrahim described Khonso Em Heb as the chief "maker of
beer for gods of the dead" adding that the tomb's chambers contain
"fabulous designs and colors, reflecting details of daily life... along
with their religious rituals."
One fresco shows Khonso
Em Heb -- who apart from being a brewer, headed the royal storehouses
during the pharaonic Ramesside period (1,292--1,069 BC) -- making
offerings to the gods along with his wife and daughter.
The newly discovered tomb
is to be placed under tight security until the excavation work is
completed, the ministry said in a press statement.
According to Professor
Poo Mun Chou, a leading Egyptologist at Hong Kong's Chinese University,
the discovery is not only significant in terms of what it tells
archaeologists about life during the New Kingdom period of Ancient
Egypt, but marks a new direction for Egypt's beleaguered antiquities
ministry.
Still reeling from a
disastrous break-in at the Cairo Museum in 2011 --- when looters smashed
two mummies and made off with more than 50 artifacts --- Egypt's
Supreme Council of Antiquities had slapped stringent restrictions on
archaeological digs.
For Professor Poo, the latest discovery is a sign that archeology in Egypt may be returning to normal.
"The significance in
this find is that for quite some time archaeologists haven't been able
to excavate an intact tomb," he said.
This is a new find and is quite unexpected.
Poo Man Chou, Egyptologist
Poo Man Chou, Egyptologist
"An intact tomb will give us a more complete view of the funerary customs which can be compared with other tomb paintings."
He said the frescoes were well preserved.
"The Supreme Council of
Antiquities has for some time had a policy of not excavating new tombs
but preserving those tombs that have already been excavated.
"This is a new find and is quite unexpected."
Apart from the recent
political turmoil in Egypt, which has led to a surge in the number of
illegal digs and antiquities damaged by looters, Professor Poo said the
sheer speed with which new discoveries were being made had meant the
government was having difficulty keeping up with logging and preserving
the finds.
Excavation around Thebes could be returning to normal.
Add to this the problem
of protecting ancient tombs, which begin to degrade the moment they are
opened, and Egypt's antiquities authorities have their work cut out for
them.
"In Egypt, of course,
the dry weather means the danger of this is less, but still after some
time the color of the painting begins to fade away.
"That is why Egypt now has a stricter policy."
While foreign
archaeological teams are still operating in Egypt, the political climate
has made it more difficult for them to do their work.
Even the International
Association of Egyptologists (IAE) was told late last year that Egypt
--- because of the political situation --- was unable to host the 2014
International Congress of Egyptologists.
The IAE is currently seeking bids for a second country to host the prestigious congress.
Meanwhile, historians and archaeologists are making use of the latest find while it is still available to be studied.
"Alcohol in ancient
Egypt was very important -- not just in terms of daily consumption but
also as an offering to deities. Beer, in particular was very important,"
said Poo.
"Beer during the New
Kingdom period was probably one-fifth or even one-tenth the price of
wine making it a very popular drink for people of all social strata."
While the appeal of beer
across all social classes remains to this day, Professor Poo says the
modern drinker might struggle to recognize the barley or millet-based
beverage of ancient times.
"While it's a close
cousin to modern beer, it's manufacture was more primitive and they had
to use a tube to extract the liquid from below which would have had a
fermented layer of substance floating on the top of the jar," he said.
"It would have had bubbles," he added.