Gotta spend time with your mummy while you still can
I love the audacity of “brewing beer”.
Wasn’t back then that the only way to store liquids for a long time? It would be like I’m collecting water in a way, kinda need that to live.
Nope it’s a common misconception. If you had the ability to boil water for a beer wouldn’t you just drink the water that had been boiled? Beer wasn’t pasteurised, carbonated and bottled in sanitary conditions like modern beer. It would have been full of natural yeast and bacteria on top of being unrefrigerated chances are you would have something close to vinegar in a few weeks. Truth is people like getting fucked up and they always have.
That’s wrong. True, people like getting drunk, but ancient beer didn’t have nearly enough alcohol to get you wasted. What the alcohol did is killing all of the unhealthy bacteria. Even the ones that survive cooking. And tbh, I have no idea why you mention yeast here. Yeast is one of the main ingredients of beer. Of course it’s gonna be present.
Another thing you have to consider: Even a couple of weeks is quite a long time for preserved food, when salt is expensive and cooling isn’t widely available. Even cooked water will only last a couple of days. Also beer doesn’t become vinegar, when stored in a sealed container like a barrel or an amphora.
But the more important reason is probably that beer just tastes pretty good. Especially when you’re otherwise limited to bland well water.
Another factor is: beer used to be way more… Nutritious? It was basically unfiltered and more of a malt smoothie than anything else. Great to get a boost of energy while working physically
Yeah, the alcohol kills pathogens, making beer safe to drink even if your water source is bad. And it can be stored for a long time without going bad.
At some point people must have discovered that “hey, if I mix water and grains in a certain way, and wait until it stops bubbling before I drink it, then it makes me feel good AND I don’t get diarrhea (or worse)!”
Just cancer, and bowel issues, skin problems, and every organ in my body being damaged, especially my brain! I love how society downplays the effects of alcohol on the body. Most people don’t even know the full effects.
Beer provided a huge percentage of the average worker’s daily calories. So if you literally didn’t want to both starve and dehydrate to death, you’d need a steady supply.
Where I’m at tap water isn’t potable, so I’m ordering liquids (of any kind that fit within my budget) in order to stay alive.
I was on a bus with some kids (18-19) and they had about ten slabs of beer they were taking home. Someone said something to them and they said that there was works going on in their building and the water would be off for 24 hours, so they had to have something to drink.
How much/many is a slab of beer? Never heard that expression before
24 cans/bottles
Beer cans etc are often delivered 24 to a cardboard tray, wrapped in plastic.
A slab is actually quite a good description for them.
As soon as I saw the reply, I could visualise it. Already told my friends, making it a thing in my neck of the woods as well
lol any excuse to drink. A bucket of water would be safe for that short of time.
Joking aside, they usually hand out pamphlets telling you to do exactly this for short periods.
In our city they have mobile water tanks they hook up to buildings if it’s over 48 hours iirc.
You might consider a combination of a hiker’s squeeze filter and a Brita elite, see if you could get a safe end product. Neither can remove salt, though. For that you’d need to distill it.
Bitten by scorpion sounds legit though.
His mother is being mummified sounds made up
that’s like skipping work for a funeral.
Bitten, not stung, he’ll live smh, kids these days
They also had: his daughter having her period and needing support.
Better parenting than many today! My life was saved when Advil came on the market, Tylenol and aspirin didn’t begin to dent the pain. I can’t imagine how bad it was for certain girls in ancient times. Maybe having so many kids and dying young wouldn’t be such a bad tradeoff after all. Thank Modern Medicine, I was finally able to yeet the uterus.
Sound like humane ppl tbh.
The complete translated text of this ostracon came be found here if anyone is interested in reading more
What script is that written in?
New Egyptian hieratic
Aaaaaand now I’m researching Ethiopic Geʽez.
Ge’ez is super cool
