Tour the ancient world via beer

Why are archaeologists brewing ancient beers?

Archaeologists have managed to brew beer from yeast found inside jugs abandoned thousands of years ago. This article explores why scientists are recreating these ancient beverages and what they hope to learn. People have been drinking beer for...

How a modern 'beer archaeologist' crafts ancient ales

The short documentary follows Travis Rupp, a University of Colorado classics professor who also works with Avery Brewing to produce Ancient Egyptian, Roman, and Peruvian beer.

Researchers believe beer was being brewed 13,000 years ago

In 2018, archaeologists discovered traces of a wheat-and-barley-based alcoholic beverage near Haifa, in modern-day Israel, and believe it was produced by the Natufian people.

How beer became a part of medieval culture

This history of beer's evolution during the Middle Ages unpacks how the brewing process, which killed harmful bacteria, made beer a safe alternative to water. That fact, along with the Catholic church condoning (and, in some cases, producing) the beverage, helped it evolve into a major commodity.

More than 100 types of beer are produced around the world

Beer dates back to ancient times, and since then, the fermented drink has taken on many different styles around the globe, depending on the grain and ingredients used. See how pilsners, IPAs, Sours, and other types evolved from the drink's early history.

The Sumerians used straws to drink beer

The ancient people drank beer from communal jars with long reed straws that pierced the thick top layer of the still-fermenting drink.

Read the Sumerian poem that provided the recipe for ancient beer

"A Hymn to Ninkasi" is a Sumerian poem from approximately 1800 BCE that's both a tribute to the goddess of beer and a recipe for brewing the beverage.

Dive into the history of beer via comic book

Why was the covered beer stein invented, and what led to the creation of the Vienna Lager beer style? Find out in this article about a 173-page comic book outlining the history of beer. According to creator Mike Smith, the history of beer is a...

The term 'alcohol' has Arabic origins

Linguistic research reveals a lot about the ancient origins of alcohol. For example, studying various languages reveals that "mead," an alcoholic beverage made from honey, came even before wine.

When did people start making and using glass?

This article details the search for the ancient origins of glass, a now-common item through which archaeologists can spot histories of trade and innovation. Bronze Age glass was made from crushed quartz instead of sand, and artisans could color glass with materials such as cobalt. These trace metallic add-ons have given scientists a vital clue into the origins of glass, which is currently debated as either Egypt or the Near East.

How winemaking has changed throughout history

Winemaking is an ancient practice, and researchers continue to find evidence that this ritual came even earlier than previously estimated. This article outlines five key turning points in wine’s history, from the fermentation of fruit by our primate ancestors to today’s increasingly popular “New World” wine. Discover the fascinating scientific and cultural factors that led to wine’s changes in flavor and increased symbolic importance.

The long history of alcohol and sports

Spectators have long enjoyed alcohol at sporting events, dating back at least to ancient Rome. This article unpacks how companies leveraged this history to make beer a central part of sporting events and masculine culture.

The popular myth behind the India pale ale

Legend has it that the beer style earned its name in the late 1700s and early 1800s, when one brewer realized he had to add more alcohol and hops to his beers to survive the long boat ride to India. But as this essay by one beer historian makes clear, the facts don't line up with that myth.

The long history of an ancient Andean beer made from corn

And often chewed before brewed. From dank chicherias in small towns to gourmet big-city restaurants catering to tourists, the traditional fermented-corn beverage chicha is still being drunk throughout the Andes. Read more here.

A look at what was on the menu for ancient Romans

"Delicious Italy" is a website exploring the food culture of various Italian cities and regions, and in this article, the editors explore what is known about the diet of ancient Romans. Olives (and their oil) were a key daily essential, alongside grains like barley, millet, and spelt flour. Where meat was found it was most often ox, pork, deer, lamb, and even pigeons. Middle Eastern fruits like cherries and peaches could last long enough to travel to Roman cities around the Mediterranean, and candy-friendly dates were sourced from Africa. Explore this and much more at Delicious Italy.

Touring the northernmost brewery in the world

Svalbard Brewery is located in the Arctic village of Longyearbyen—in a region known for polar bears, reindeer, and miles of uninhabited frozen tundra—and caters to a diverse, international clientele who appreciate the beer's unique ingredient: 2,000-year-old glacier water.

Reconstructing an average day in ancient Egypt

Egyptologists can reconstruct the intimate details of everyday life in the ancient civilization by studying the archaeological material preserved in tombs, monuments, and partially intact neighborhood layouts. Watch a comprehensive tour of the daily habits and lifestyles of ancient Egyptians with expert Dr. Joann Fletcher.

The ancient Greeks were known to take vacations

Historians trace the vacation back to at least ancient Greece, where many people traveled to festivals and athletic events, including the Olympic Games.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

What was the London Beer Flood of 1814?

On this day 209 years ago, a 15-foot-high wave of beer roared through the streets of an impoverished London neighborhood, killing eight people. Read this beer historian's account of the tragedy to learn more. The beer had burst from the nearby...

Watch the history of human migration that led to civilizations

Starting in Africa where they hunted with spears and fires, humans would gradually move out of the continent over thousands of years as they navigated crossing deserts, rivers, uneven terrain, and shifting climates. Development of technology, language, farming, and other societal structures helped build up the first civilizations.

The history of coffee

From its likely origins in what is now Ethiopia to today's worldwide consumption, this video uses a map to show how coffee conquered the world. Follow along and see how pilgrimages and centuries of trade influenced the spread of the beverage we all know so well.

Ancient Egyptians developed the first pregnancy test—and scientists tested it in the 1960s

A papyrus from about 1350 B.C.E. discusses a test in which a woman would urinate on wheat and barley seeds over the course of several days. If the barley grows, she's having a male child; if the wheat grows, it's a female child; and if nothing grows, she's not pregnant. Scientists went on to test this theory in 1963 and found that about 70% of the time, the urine of pregnant women did promote growth whereas the urine of nonpregnant women didn't—perhaps due to estrogen levels in the urine.

Take a virtual tour inside Stonehenge

Prehistoric visitors approached Stonehenge along a processional route known as the Avenue, where the sunrise of the summer solstice aligns with the sarsen stones. This interactive 3D tour recreates that experience with explainer videos and detailed sidebars.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

Wander through an Oktoberfest celebration

Feel like you’re in the center of the action with this walk-through video of the modern Oktoberfest experience. A former Munich resident covers everything you could want to know, including how to not anger the locals with boorish behavior. She explains the layout of the grounds, what to wear (hint: not cheap, mass-produced German costumes), and a few vital German phrases. Don’t forget to say "bitte" (thank you) when ordering your next round!

Virtually tour 10 of America's oldest bars

If you’re the type of person who hunts for authenticity in everything you do, then you probably spend a fair amount of time looking for the first and original. Why settle for any less in your bar choices? We dug through records, spoke with local historians and fact-checked promotional material to bring you the ultimate original bar list: The oldest bar in every state.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.