Chapter Three 



The Beer in the Ancient Orient 



Peoples in all ages and climates have prepared naturally 

 fermented beverages from any available material. The state- 

 ment of Pliny 1 "if any one will take the trouble duly to con- 

 sider 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", can be augmented by the addition "and 

 of beer". The brewing industry in its beginnings in historic 

 times was a home industry like that of baking bread. Indeed 

 the work of the baker and that of the brewer was very much 

 alike in the initial stages of brewing. The earhest Egyptian 

 texts enumerate quite a number of different beers; One of the 



oldest generic terms for beer seems to be iehpet, \ d . Shpt- 



beer Pyr. Texts W 143 a; T 114 a; N451 a; Beni Hasan I, pi. 17 etc. 

 On the stele of Khabiousokari in the Museum of Cairo a certain 



beer is called hn- , ^^^ . In the pyramid-texts we meet with 



a "dark beer", an "iron beer" and the hes-httx, i. e., "garnished 



beer" 2. The pyramid-texts further mention the ///-beer, ^, 



(W 144 a; T 115 a; N 452 a, which is probably the same as the 



^^^-^'''' ^' *" ^^"^ ^"^"" ^' P^- '7)' the ^^f1|^-beer 

 (W 141a; T 112a; N 449a) and the beer of Nubia, hk.t 

 sty, \^\ (W 145a; T 116a; N 453a). Under the 

 rubrique sehpet, "beer", are also mentioned very early the 



i) Pliny, XIV, 22. 



2) See Unas 46, 53, 54, 55. 



