The Beer in the Ancient Orient. jry 



Syriac ]Zji^ '. It is probable that whenever this latter word 

 is used, it refers to an imported kind of barley, which came 

 from Syria, according to Pap. Harris I-. 



The word hkt, R 0, is most likely derived from the root 



^Tt^, "to squeeze, to press out". Hrozny, Vber das Bier ini 

 alte?i Babylonien und Agypten (Anzeiger der Wien. Ak. phil. 

 CI. 1910, Dez.), connects hkt with the Babylonian beer called 

 liiqu, deriving the word from haqu, "to mix". It is hardh' 

 possible to suppose, apart from other considerations, that a 

 word like Egyptian hkt, which occurs innumerable times in 

 texts of every period, should have been borrowed from the 

 Babylonian hiqu, a word, which is not at all met witli fre- 

 quently in Babylonian texts. Certain beers used for religious 



purposes exclusively were called fi ?) Ij ^. ' , ^^. 

 T 288; M65; with the determinative S (1 # ^ "^^ ~t 

 <K /"^ N 126, i. e., "beer which does not sour(.^)"; 8 ^ 

 "^l |, P 391; M 557; N 1164 "beer of eternity", and | '^ ^ 



beer of the goddess Maat", or simply, "beer 



V 



^M" 



of truth". The latter was a beer drunk by the 12 gods who 

 guarded the shrine of Osiris. 



Durra-beer seems to have been unknown to the Egyp- 

 tians until a ver}' late time. Pliny's statement ^ that the durra 

 was brought in his time from India to Italy may be correct 

 and explain the fact that the Egyptian inscriptions do not 



\\ F. i., Totenbuch , 173 "beer of white .9;/". Aes;. 7-., 1S77, y. 30 



in the city of Tpii from white srt''\ White srl appears to have been prelerred 

 for brewing, while the black srt was more generally used for the making of 

 bread. The white and red barley, called //, are also more generally mentioned 

 in the making of beer than the black /V. 7 picnhuch 189, 14 "bread of black 

 bailey (/V)", 



2) The chief barley growing district of Palestine was the southern part 

 of the country. 3) Plin., //. ;/. XVIII, 17. 



