He Found the Oldest-Known Beer on the Planet... the Biomolecular Archaeology of Ancient Alcoholic Beverages

BREWING HISTORY l Penn Museum main gate and Warden’s garden He found the oldest-known beer on the planet... The biomolecular archaeology of ancient alcoholic beverages By Ian Hornsey In May 2016 the World Beer Cup, splendidly organised by the Brewers’ Association, was held in Philadelphia, the city where the ‘American Dream’ began. Having been invited to judge at the event, my thoughts turned to the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and its excellent Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (known as The Penn Museum) – with its world-renowned Biomolecular Archaeology Project. McGovern in the laboratory f time permitted, I might be able to After three hectic days of judging, I Health. He is also Adjunct Professor Itake the short train journey from our managed to find a mutually convenient of Anthropology at UPenn, where he downtown base, the Pennsylvania Con- slot for my visit to UPenn and caught teaches molecular archaeology. vention Centre (PCC) and meet up with the highly efficient SEPTA (Southeast- Much of McGovern’s earlier work at Penn Museum’s Dr Patrick McGovern ern Pennsylvania Transportation Au- Penn Museum was carried out under the whose interests in the history of alco- thority) train from Jefferson, a station auspices of the Museum Applied Science holic beverages very much coincide almost inside PCC, to the University Centre for Archaeology (MASCA), which with mine. City stop, roughly midway between first saw the light of day in 1961 and In fact, the chap I was going to meet downtown and the airport. At the mu- from which studies on ancient organic has identified the world’s oldest known seum, I was met by McGovern, known materials were carried out. barley beer and the oldest grape wine – in those parts as ‘Dr Pat’, who is now In the early days of MASCA much and found the oldest alcoholic beverage Director of the Biomolecular Project of the work revolved around the then of any kind on the planet! for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages and new technique of radio-carbon dating www.ibd.org.uk Brewer and Distiller International August 2017 z 35 l BREWING HISTORY but under its second director, Stuart sugar/starch-rich plants, developed Fleming, the scope of the Centre was the technology for making their own broadened considerably and was to alcoholic beverages – and there are include topics such as the application very few, if any, societies whose peo- of scientific techniques to anthropo- ples knew about ethanol – and so paid logical questions. little attention to it. Forget about crys- Texas-born McGovern joined tal meth and the like; today, ethanol MASCA as a research scientist in 1979 is the most widely used psychoactive and since then he has been engaged in substance in the world. a wide range of research in archaeo- Because of the inherent chemical logical chemistry, including radiocar- stability of the principle of the above bon dating, caesium magnetometer mentioned Royal Purple dye com- surveying, neutron activation analysis, pound, which is 6,6’-dibromoindigotin infrared spectrometry and HPLC. It is Grooved sherd from Godin Tepe (DBI), detection of it in ancient textile fair to say that McGovern’s laboratory ties, scientists, scholars, and private samples is relatively straightforward, at UPenn has consistently been at the institutions and individuals from as long as the sample has been suit- cutting edge in the development of around world, particularly bemoan- ably preserved. Ancient artefacts con- analytical archaeochemistry. ing the potential loss of McGovern’s taining traces of fermented foods and The multidisciplinary nature of ground-breaking research. beverages, however, which would have McGovern’s work is an extension of his The general feeling was, both contained more labile compounds such university studies, for his first degree locally and internationally, that the as ethanol, present a totally different was an AB in chemistry from Cornell decision represented a departure problem and ‘surrogate’ (marker) com- University, which led to a period of from the ethos of the 1887 founders. pounds must be identified to confirm graduate research at neurochemistry Subsequently, around two-thirds of the the identity of the sample. at the University of Rochester Univer- ‘endangered’ staff were offered new For evidence of wines, tartaric acid/ sity in upstate New York. positions within the museum, gener- tartrates are used as a marker, while This chemistry-orientated begin- ally as retired, non-paid ‘volunteers’. for beers the oxalate ion (beerstone; ning to his training was followed by McGovern now serves in this role, as calcium oxalate) is the marker. Over PhD studies in Near Eastern archaeol- he continues to carry out and direct the years, McGovern has increasingly ogy and literature at UPenn, where he significant biomolecular archaeologi- applied more sensitive and precise would subsequently find employment cal research. chemical techniques, starting out with as a research specialist in MASCA. An a combination of FT-IR, HPLC, snf important part of that post involved the McGovern’s work Feigl spot tests, and now generally excavation of Bronze Age and Iron Age A glance through a list of his numer- using GC-MS and tandem LC-MS-MS, sites in the Baq’ah Valley, Jordan, a ous publications indicates the breadth along with other methods (e.g., SPME project which he directed for decades of the archaeological topics that he has and isotope analysis) as needed. The as a research associate in the Near studied in the forty-odd years he has search for biomarkers continues. For Eastern section of the Museum. been at UPenn. Although McGovern’s example, the yeast sterol ergosterol main interests now involve the archae- [ergosta-5,7,22-trien’3β-ol] has been Penn Museum restructuring ochemistry of foodstuffs, particularly proposed as marker for identifying Over the years, Penn Museum, with alcoholic beverages, his early work yeast fermentation activity. its mission to: ‘advance understand- was much more diverse and included McGovern and colleagues identified ing of the world’s cultural heritage’, geophysical prospecting for archaeo- well-preserved ribosomal DNA strands has acquired a unique reputation as a logical sites. of a ‘precursor’ of Saccharomayces research institution which has carried Subsequently, he has identified and cerevisiae, 840 base pairs in length, in out many significant archaeological dated a number of diverse artefacts, the residues of imported wine jars from projects, most notably in the Middle including: a very early form of iron/ the tomb of one of Egypt’s first kings, East, Mesoamerica, and the Mediter- carbon metal (steel) worked into Scorpion I of Dynasty 0, at Abydos ca. ranean. The museum’s field-based anklets and bracelets found in burial 3150 BC (see below). research set is aside from other caves in the Baq’ah Valley, a geological McGovern stresses that the chemi- university-based museums in the US. graben feature on the Transjordanian cal argument for an ancient fermented At the end of November 2008, Plateau; colorants in ancient Egyptian however, the archaeological world glassmaking; identification of the ear- was stunned when Penn Museum an- liest use of the dye Royal Purple which nounced that it was cutting a number of was widely used by the Phoenicians, specialist anthropological and archaeo- and chemical and archaeological logical research positions. The cuts evidence for the earliest use of cacao were officially attributed to a ‘strategic (Theobroma spp.) in beverages. planning decision’ rather than to the Thanks to workers like McGovern downturn in the US economy. and his associates, it is now evident As a result of this ‘strategic plan- that with the exception of Oceania and ning’, MASCA was to be disbanded and most of North America, tribal peo- Patrick McGovern would be one of the ples from all the inhabitable parts of casualties. Letters of protest poured in the planet that developed in climates from antiquity departments, universi- capable of supporting the growth of Sumerian sign for beer (upper left) 36 z Brewer and Distiller International August 2017 www.ibd.org.uk BREWING HISTORY l beverage must also be bolstered by archaeobotanical and well-dated, well-preserved and well-provenanced archaeological evidence, including ancient texts and artwork, ethnogra- phy, – and experimental archaeology in testing the ingredients and production processes for the proposed beverages. Godin Tepe In terms of McGovern’s publication chronology, the first report of direct relevance to beer relates to finds at the Late Uruk period (Period V; 3,500-2,900 BC) site at Godin Tepe in the central Zagros Mountains of western Iran. This particular period in human evolution has provided Homo sapiens with many ‘firsts’, including irrigation systems, codes of law, bureaucracy and writing, and to these we can add ‘chemical evidence for beer’. As McGovern averred: “The Late Uruk period is contemporaneous with Some important Near Eastern archaeological sites in the search for wine urban life as we know it.” Excavations at Godin Tepe yielded a fragment from given the site was in close contact with Archäologisches Institut (Orient- a pottery vessel which had character- lowland Greater Mesopotamia, where Abteilung) and the Forschungszentrum istic criss-cross grooves on its inner beer was the preferred drink. The beer Weihenstephan für Brau- und Lebens- surface. Deposited in some of these at Godin Tepe was likely made from mittelqualität. grooves was a yellowish residue which locally-grown barley because carbon- tested positive for the beerstone con- ised six-row barley predominated in In search of wine stituent calcium oxalate (Feigl test). the archaeobotanical material recov- Historically, the Zagros Mountains are Although the outer surfaces of con- ered from Period V.” more synonymous with viticulture and temporary vessels were often scored To confirm that they were work- winemaking than beer and brewing, for decoration, markings on the inside ing along correct lines, McGovern’s since the domesticated Eurasian grape- are unusual and must have some spe- team applied the same methodology vine (Vitis vlnifera subsp.

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