University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Languages, Literatures and Cultures Department of Languages, Literatures and Publications Cultures 2005 The Barbarian's Beverage: A History of Beer in Ancient Europe Max Nelson University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/llcpub Part of the Modern Languages Commons, and the Modern Literature Commons Recommended Citation Nelson, Max. (2005). The Barbarian's Beverage: A History of Beer in Ancient Europe. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/llcpub/26 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Scholarship at UWindsor. It has been accepted for inclusion in Languages, Literatures and Cultures Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarship at UWindsor. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE BARBARIAN’S BEVERAGE THE BARBARIAN’S BEVERAGE A History of Beer in Ancient Europe Max Nelson First published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2005 Max Nelson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Nelson, Max, 1972– The barbarian’s beverage: a history of beer in ancient Europe / Max Nelson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. 1. Beer—Europe—History—To 1500. 2. Brewing industry— Europe—History—To 1500. I. Title. TP577.N45 2004 641.2′3—dc22 2004007494 ISBN 0-203-30912-X Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-31121-7 (Print edition) CONTENTS List of illustrations vii Preface ix 1 Introduction 1 Beer and other alcoholic beverages 1 Beer and society 3 Modern scholarship on ancient European beer 5 Overview 6 2 Beer in the east and west 9 Origins 9 Prehistoric northern Europe 11 Southern Europe 13 The first mentions of beer in the west 16 The baked and the brewed 21 3 The Greek prejudice against beer 25 The roots of beer prejudice 25 The causes of beer prejudice 33 4 The two drinking ideologies of ancient Europe 38 5 The Celts and the great beer decline 45 Prehistoric Celtic Europe 45 Southern Gaul 46 Celtiberia 52 Northern Gaul 55 Britain 63 v CONTENTS 6 The Roman Empire and the rule of wine 67 Beer and law 70 Beer and medicine 71 The Roman Church 74 The Irish Church 76 7 Germanic Europe and the great beer revival 78 The Germans 78 Anglo-Saxon Britain 82 Merovingian Gaul 89 Carolingian Gaul 99 The legacy 110 8 Conclusion 115 Notes 117 Bibliography 168 Index 195 vi ILLUSTRATIONS Figures 2.1 A sherd from Godin Tepe, Iran, from between 3500 and 2900 BC on which was discovered what might be the earliest known beer residue 11 2.2 A ram’s head vessel from what is generally identified as King Midas’s tomb in Gordion, Turkey, from around 700 BC, perhaps used for a mixed beverage including barley 18 2.3 A lion’s head vessel from what is generally identified as King Midas’s tomb in Gordion, Turkey, from around 700 BC, perhaps used for a mixed beverage including barley 19 3.1 A gem depicting the beer drinker Lycurgus chopping down vines 26 3.2 A coin of the beer-drinking Emperor Valens (who ruled from AD 364 to 378) 31 5.1 A spindle whorl from Autun, France, probably from the early Roman Empire, with an inscription which may read in Gallic: ‘Beautiful girl, good barley beer’ 52 5.2 A cup from Mainz, Germany, from the early fourth century AD with an inscription in Latin reading: ‘Waitress, fill up the pot from the good wheat beer!’ 57 5.3 An annular flask from Paris, France, probably from the early Roman Empire, with an inscription in Latin reading: ‘Waitress, fill the flask with wheat beer!’ 58 5.4 The reverse side of the flask in figure 5.3 with an inscription in Latin reading: ‘Innkeeper, do you have spiced wine? It needs to be filled!’ 59 5.5 A fragmentary Latin inscription on a vessel from Banassac, France, probably from the early Roman Empire, perhaps originally reading: ‘Fill up with wheat beer!’ 60 5.6 The tombstone of a beer dealer from Trier, Germany, from the late first century AD 61 vii ILLUSTRATIONS 5.7 Fragment of a tombstone of a beer maker from Trier, Germany, from the early Roman Empire 62 5.8 The reconstructed tombstone of a beer maker from Trier, Germany, from the early Roman Empire 63 7.1 Reconstructed drinking horns from Sutton Hoo, England, from the early seventh century AD 85 7.2 Reconstructed drinking horns from Taplow Barrow, England from the early seventh century AD 86 7.3 The map of the abbey of St Gall, Switzerland, from the early ninth century AD 102 7.4 Detail of the map of the abbey of St Gall showing the monks’ brewing facilities at top centre surrounded by buildings where the malt was stored and ground 103 7.5 Detail of the map of the abbey of St Gall showing the brewing facilities for the distinguished guests in the lower left corner 105 7.6 Detail of the map of the abbey of St Gall showing the brewing facilities for the pilgrims and paupers in the lower left corner; notice the storeroom with barrels at the top 106 7.7 Drawing of English monks’ sign language from around the tenth century AD. A finger applied to the lips represented a drink, and grinding one hand on the other represented beer 113 Maps Map 1 Prehistoric sites in Scotland where evidence for beer may have been discovered 13 Map 2 Monasteries serving beer and using hops 109 viii PREFACE This book is a revised version of my doctoral dissertation (defended at the University of British Columbia in 2001), and as such, has benefited from the help of a great many people. I would like to thank warmly Bob Todd for his patient and conscientious work supervising my thesis. Thanks are also due to Rob Cousland, Harry Edinger, Douglas Gerber, Phillip Harding, and Richard Unger for their careful scrutiny of, and acute observations on, the thesis, as well as Tony Barrett, Lisa Cooper, Chris Epplett, Crista McInnis, and Chris Morrissey for their various comments. Iain Hill, the brewmaster at the Yaletown brewpub and restaurant in Vancouver, has helped me in better understanding chemical and technological aspects of brewing. Correspondence with Eva Koch from the National Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, Eleanor Irwin from the University of Toronto in Scarborough, Pat McGovern from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, Ruth Palmer of Ohio University, Hans-Peter Stika of the Universität, Hohenheim, and Lothar Schwinden of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum of Trier, has helped me on a number of issues. It would be too difficult to record my debts to all those who have inspired my work by raising a glass with me, but among those must be remembered Mike Bauer, Mike Borshuk, Jon Buss, Scott Dallimore, Patricia Fagan, Janet Lawrence, Sebastian Magierowski, Eric Marcuzzi, Michelle Murphy, Roland Ouellette, Andy Rodgers, Matt St. Amand, David and Michelle Smith, Rosanna Vitale, and especially Hannelore Steinke. Thank you also to Robert Weir for his photography and Eleanor Andrew for her drawings. Richard Stoneman has kindly encouraged my work while the two anonymous referees for this publication have made many improvements to my text, particularly in terms of my translations. I further gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the Izaak Walton Killam memorial fund and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. I have benefited especially from the collections at the libraries of the University of British Columbia, the University of Washington, and the University of Michigan, but also those at the University of Alberta, the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa, the University of Windsor, the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, the Bodleian and Christ Church libraries in Oxford, and the ix PREFACE University of Heidelberg library. Also, visits to the Rheinisches Landesmuseum of Trier, Germany, the Musée Luxembourgeois in Arlon, Belgium, and the Jewish Museum in New York City proved valuable for this work. I cannot neglect to thank heartily the staff at the resource sharing services office at the Walter C. Koerner Library, University of British Columbia, for their tireless efforts in securing obscure works for my delectation. I would like to dedicate this book to my father, Ralph Nelson, who has always proved to be a kind, generous, humble, moderate, and extremely wise teacher. I wish through this work to toast him with a pint of our foamy friend. x 1 INTRODUCTION Beer is at present the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world, and is the most popular drink after water and tea. Yet throughout the world pints of ale and cans of lager are consumed with little thought of how such a beverage, made from malted cereals, hops, yeast, and water (and sometimes other ingredients as well) came to look and taste the way it does or even came to be thought of the way it does.