VI Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing. 



The following pages purport to place together the most 

 important, but by no means the entire, material which has come 

 to light regarding the viticulture and brev/ing in the ancient 

 Orient, material which to a large degree can at best be found 

 only isolated in the respective literatures. To some whom the 

 Orient interests only as a country of religious systems or for 

 purely linguistic or historical questions, the gathering of such 

 materials as contained in this volume will seem banal, but 

 still the question ti jriaijiev was at all times a cardinal question 

 to humanity, and the saying of Pliny "if anj^ one will take the 

 trouble duly to consider the matter, he will find that upon no 

 one subject is the industry of man kept more constantly on 

 the alert than upon the making of wine" is fully verified in 

 our present time. In spite of all modern legislation it- is still 

 a question often uppermost in the minds of many peoples 

 whose governments have made tabula I'asa with it. And thus 

 it will probably always remain. 



The present treatment, which considers the matter from 

 the beginning of historic time down to the wine-prohibition of 

 Muhammed, still contains many gaps, which can be filled only 

 by later discoveries. In many cases our information consists 

 merely of names, for instance, the many beer-and wine-names; 

 and wherever technical details might have been considered 

 more fully, I have avoided such details, as, for instance, in' 

 regard to the Old-Babylonian beer recipes; of these we 

 already possess a very elaborate treatment by Hrozny, who 

 has also announced that he will offer another work on the in- 

 tricate question of the materials used in the Babylonian brewer)'. 



It will, finally, be necessary to say a few words regarding 

 the use of alcoholic beverages by the ancient Orientals. Far 

 be it from me to represent the Orientals to my readers in the 

 light of drunkards. From the testimony of the Classical writers 

 and according to the ideas of some modern scholars it might 

 appear as if they had been such. But this is not the case. 

 In certain circles, it is true, there have existed at all times 

 some debauchers, but history has never seen a whole people 

 absolutely given to drunkenness. Wherever suggestions are to 

 be found which might lead to such a conclusion, they are 

 nothing but strong exaggerations. A sane human intelligence 



