World’s Oldest Written Recipe (and it’s for Beer!)

This is a very special recipe on several different levels. First, at 4,000 years old, it’s the oldest known written recipe. Second, it was handed down by a god.

Although the recipe was said to have been given to men by the Sumerian god Enki, the written version was found contained in a hymn dedicated to the beer goddess Ninkasi. Beer was the national fermented drink of ancient Babylonia.

In the beginning, beer was probably an accidental by-product of the bread making process. Ancient Sumerians preserved grain by baking it, usually in the form of bread. When this bread got wet, it fermented into a kind of liquid beer. Over time, honey and other spices were used to flavor the brew. The resulting beer was strong. It was also full of pieces of bread and other more or less solid materials, making it a hard to drink. The Sumerians’ solution was to drink their beer through a straw.

Beer was so important in the ancient world that laws were passed governing it. Beer was even part of the pay of workers in Mesopotamia, Egypt and other ancient civilizations. The Babylonians are known to have made at least sixteen different kinds of beer and used a variety of grains, including barley and wheat, along with honey. Beer was also mentioned in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

If you’d like the recipe, you can find it here

Egypt’s Oldest Rock Art

When we think of Egypt, we think of the mighty civilization that arose with the pharaohs around 5500 years ago. The iconic art of Egypt also was thought to have developed around the same time, seeming to emerge full-blown without any sort of development phase.

But in July of 2007, engravings were found carved on sandstone cliff faces at the village of Quarts, about 400 miles (640 km) south of Cairo. Actually, they were rediscovered. They were originally found in 1962 by an expedition led by Philip Smith and a group from the University of Toronto, Canada. At the time, Smith suggested that the figures were carved some time before 10,000 years ago. His theory was roundly discredited, and he later abandoned it in later years. Now, finally, he has been proven right by the 2007 expedition led by Dirk Huyge, curator of the Egyptian Collection at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, Belgium.

The panels date back to about 15,000 years ago, which makes them contemporary to many of the artworks of Lescaux, France and Altamira in Spain. Not only that, but there are several striking similarities between the Egyptian engravings and those in Europe. For example, the cave paintings and engravings at Lascaux are best known for images of cows and bulls, and a large number of the Egyptian carvings also depict cattle. In addition, the European and Egyptian art works are stylistically very similar. Huyge carefully pointed out, however, that this does not mean that Egyptians created the art in Lascaux or Altamira, or that European artists created the Egyptian panels.

The Egyptian engravings are scattered over a one mile long (1.66 km) stretch of cliffs measuring about 230 feet (70 meters) tall. The 2007 expedition discovered several additional panels of artwork that had not been found by the 1962 expedition. And Huyge expects that more art will be found in North Africa. He also believes that some will be found to be even older than the Qurta panels.

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