In this episode of Things We Threw Away, we raise a virtual glass and follow alcoholic beverages through the objects, residues, and stories that make them visible in the archaeological record.

After staying with rabbits and hares in the previous episodes, we now turn to beer, wine, rice wine, pulque, and fermented cacao. The journey begins with 13,000-year-old beer residues from Raqefet Cave near Haifa, where Natufian communities may have brewed a thick, porridge-like beer for ritual feasts. From there, we move to Neolithic China, where pottery jars preserve traces of a mixed fermented drink made from rice, honey, and fruit, and to later bronze vessels that still held ancient liquid after thousands of years.

The episode then follows wine into Georgia, where early grape wine production is evident in large ceramic jars and chemical residues, before moving on to Roman wine-making through experimental archaeology. Here, ancient recipes, ash-washed vessels, foot-crushed grapes, sealed jars, and smoky aftertastes bring the production process closer again. Finally, we travel to ancient Mexico, where pulque connects agave, mythology, moral rules, and social life, and to fermented cacao, where chocolate also becomes part of the long history of alcoholic drinks.

Together, these examples show that alcohol was never only about drinking. It was food, ritual, storage, experimentation, local knowledge, taste, pleasure, danger, and social regulation. By looking at vessels and residues, we ask how humans learned to work with fermentation, how different communities used the plants around them, and why so many cultures turned waiting, sweetness, and decay into something meaningful.

So, join us as we continue through the archaeology of drinks, from prehistoric beer and ancient rice wine to Roman experiments, agave stories, and cacao pulp — one vessel at a time.

Further References

* Brief History of Alcoholic Drinks: https://www.kwswa.org/assets/docs/BriefHistoryofABforALLTIME.138230023.pdf

* History of Alcoholic Beverages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_alcoholic_beverages

* Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC539767/

* Oldest wine from Georgia: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41977709

* Oldest Brewery in Haifa, Israel:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45534133

* Drinks from South America: https://web.archive.org/web/20070119162605/http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0560e/x0560e05.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulque

* Columella’s Wine

https://exarc.net/issue-2020-1/at/columellas-wine-roman-enology-experiment

Credits

* Intro and outro music: “Meeting for Two – Background Music for Video Vlog (Hip Hop version, 43s)” via Pixabay Music by White_Records

* Research behind the script: Jona Schlegel and Stefanie Ulrich

* Editing and post-production: Jona Schlegel

* Cover art: Stefanie Ulrich

Things We Threw Away – Where to Find the Podcast

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Projects by the team members

Jona Schlegel

* Follow on Instagram (@archaeoink): Visual science communication through illustration, websites and archaeology

* jonaschlegel.com: Portfolio and background on archaeological communication, coding, and design

* archaeoink.com: Illustrated archaeology, blog posts, newsletter, and research-based visual storytelling

Stefanie Ulrich

* Follow on Instagram (@layers.of.the.past): Photography of archaeological objects, and material encounters with a special focus on ancient Rome

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