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Alcohol in the Ancient World ARCH 1787

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World

Brown University Fall Semester 2016 Rhode Island Hall

Tuesday–Thursday, 2:30–3:50 pm

Instructor Dr. Tate Paulette Rhode Island Hall, Room 210 tate_paulette@brown.edu (401) 863-2306 Office hours: TTh 4–5pm

Teaching Assistant Emily Booker Rhode Island Hall, TA Room (basement) emily_booker@brown.edu Office hours: W 10am–12pm

Course Description The ancient world was thoroughly steeped in alcohol. From the earliest Neolithic experiments with controlled fermentation to the elaborate drinking cultures of the Classical world and beyond, alcohol has infused and inflected social life for many thousands of years. This lecture- and discussion-based course provides an introduction to the production and consumption of beer, wine, and other fermented beverages across the ancient world. We will explore the full range of available source material – written evidence, physical remains, artistic representations, ethnographic accounts, and experimental archaeology – to develop an account of alcohol as a uniquely potent form of material culture that was embedded within complex webs of social, political, economic, and ritual activity. After an introduction to the basic principles of fermentation, we will move through a series of regional case studies. In each case, we will piece together evidence for the places where alcoholic beverages were produced, as well as the technologies and techniques employed. As far as possible, we will consider the beverages themselves – their tastes, textures, and alcohol content – and their effects on imbibers. We will also examine the broader context of consumption, that is, the places, events, and occasions where beer, wine, and other beverages were consumed, often in symbolically loaded circumstances. Prerequisites: None.

Learning Goals You will leave this course with an understanding of the basic principles of fermentation and a detailed appreciation for the many different technologies and techniques that have allowed humans to transform a broad variety of natural products (e.g., honey, fruits, grains, succulents, tubers) into alcoholic beverages. Over the course of the semester, you will also develop a long-term, global perspective on the consumption of alcoholic beverages and the complex social, cultural, and political meanings that envelop and emerge within contexts of communal consumption. In the process, you will learn to engage critically with several key types of source material (archaeological, historical, art historical, ethnographic), and you will emerge with a deeper appreciation for the particular challenges and potentials of these

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different types of evidence and different modes of engaging with the past (and present). Ultimately, the course aims to broaden your perspective on the deep (pre)history of human engagement with alcoholic beverages, while at the same time encouraging you to reflect on the many ways in which these ancient beverages continue to exercise a unique kind of power in our own world.

Readings There is one textbook for the course.

McGovern, Patrick E. 2009. Uncorking the past: The quest for wine, beer, and other alcoholic beverages. Berkeley: University of California Press.

All other readings will be posted on the course website. All readings should be completed before class on the day indicated (see schedule below).

Requirements Class participation

You are expected to be present and prepared for all class meetings and to participate fully in all discussions and activities. More than two unexcused absences will adversely impact your final grade for the course (1 percentage point per absence).

Reading quizzes There will be up to five brief, unannounced, in-class reading quizzes that test your basic knowledge of the readings for the class meeting in question. These will not be difficult and are simply meant to make sure that you are doing the required readings.

Quiz: Fermentation and alcoholic beverages (9/22) The quiz will be completed in class and will test your knowledge of the fermentation process and the main types of alcoholic beverage.

Paper 1: Sources and interpretation (due 9/29) Paper 1 is a short (1200–1500 words) reflection paper. You will be asked to consider both the role of alcohol in our own world and the potential traces that will be left behind in the archaeological and historical records of the future. You will begin by choosing a context in which alcohol is produced and/or consumed in the modern world. This can be a specific event (e.g., Thanksgiving dinner, a wedding reception, an office party), a specific location (e.g., a bar, a restaurant, a brewery/winery/distillery, a beer store), or a collection of locations (e.g., the pubs of London, the breweries of Chicago, a neighborhood). First, imagine that you are a contemporary ethnographer who can observe the activities taking place, question the actors involved, and perhaps even participate directly in the activities. What types of information will you be able to collect, and what types of interpretation will you be able to offer? Second, imagine that you are an archaeologist of the future. What do you think will be left behind (e.g., was the space carefully cleared out and demolished or abandoned in a sudden catastrophe?)? What types of information will you be able to collect, and what types of interpretation will you be able to offer? Reflect on the challenges and the potentials of these two very different modes of studying the role of alcohol in human societies. In writing this paper, you are not required to visit the chosen location, and you should absolutely not engage in or report on any illegal activities.

Paper 2: Production technologies and techniques (due 10/27) Paper 2 is a short (1200–1500 words) research paper. You will be asked to examine the technologies and techniques that were used to produce alcoholic beverages in one part of the ancient world and then compare these technologies and techniques to those used in the modern world. Your paper should include a discussion of the evidence available (and

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not available) and, for both the ancient and the modern case, figures showing the chaîne opératoire of production, key pieces of equipment, and the layout of production spaces. For your modern comparison, you may choose to focus on a particular ethnographic case study (e.g., brewing among the Luo of Kenya) or a particular mode/scale of production (e.g., home brewing, small-scale commercial production, or industrial-scale commercial production).

Paper 3: Social, cultural, political, and economic perspectives (proposal 11/22; paper due 12/15) Paper 3 is a longer (2400–3000 words) research paper. You will be asked to produce an extended discussion of the social, cultural, political, and/or economic dimensions of alcoholic beverage production and consumption within a particular region during a particular time period. You will begin by choosing one of the world regions discussed in the course and one (or two) time period(s) on which to focus. As far as possible, given the evidence available, your paper should then develop a complex, multilayered argument that situates the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages within a broader set of social, cultural, political, and/or economic (choose at least two of these four dimensions) forces and relationships.

One month prior to the due date, you are required to submit a brief (1 paragraph) research paper proposal that demonstrates the feasibility of your chosen topic. This proposal should include a preliminary, annotated bibliography that includes at least five published, academic sources.

Grading Assessment

Class participation 10% Reading quizzes 10% Fermentation quiz 10% Paper 1 20% Paper 2 20% Paper 3 30%

Grading Scale A 90 – 100% B 80 – 89% C 70 – 79% NC 0 – 69%

Time Management Over the course of the semester, you will spend a total of 42 hours in class (3 hours/week, 14

weeks). Outside of class, you are expected to spend approximately 5 hours per week on the required course readings, leading to a total of 70 hours (5 hours/week, 14 weeks). You are also expected to spend approximately 65 hours of time outside of class completing the three written assignments (Paper 1, 15 hours; Paper 2, 20 hours; Paper 3, 30 hours) and approximately 3 hours studying for the quiz dedicated to fermentation and alcoholic beverages. The total time spent on the course (in class and out of class) will, therefore, total approximately 180 hours.

Absences You are expected to be present for all class meetings. More than two unexcused absences will adversely impact your final grade for the course (1 percentage point per absence).

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Late Assignments Assignments submitted after the due date will result in an automatic reduction of 10 percentage points (i.e. one letter grade) per day late.

Use of Online Sources Your writing assignments may include references to online sources, subject to the following restrictions. You may not cite Wikipedia.org as a source. You may cite online books and academic journal articles (e.g., accessed via the Brown University Library website or via jstor.org and other databases), but these must be referenced as books and journal articles, not as websites. You may also cite web content hosted by academic institutions (web addresses usually end in .edu, .org, or .gov), but each citation must be accompanied by a footnote explaining why the source in question qualifies as a reputable academic source.

Use of Laptop Computers and Tablets You may use a laptop computer or tablet to take notes in class, but this privilege may be revoked at any time (for the class as a whole) if it is being abused.

Policy on Academic Honesty Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Any cheating or plagiarism will immediately result in a grade of 0% for the assignment and will be reported to the Dean of the College. Please review the Academic Code at the following website. http://www.brown.edu/academics/college/degree/policies/academic-code

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Any student with a documented disability is welcome to contact me as early in the semester as possible so that we may arrange reasonable accommodations. As part of this process, please be in touch with Student and Employee Accessibility Services by calling 401-863-9588 or online at http://brown.edu/Student_Services/Office_of_Student_Life/seas/index.html.

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Schedule

Week Topic Date Readings Assignments

1 Introduction 9/8 No readings

2

The culture, politics, and economy of alcohol 9/13 Dietler 2006

Dietler 1990

Fermentation basics 9/15 McGee 2004 (Ch. 13, 713–771) Steinkraus 1979

3

Evidence and interpretation 9/20 Samuel 1993 Jennings et al. 2005

The earliest alcoholic beverages 9/22

McGovern 2009 (Preface; Ch. 1; Ch. 3) Braidwood et al. 1953

Quiz

The Near East

4 Mesopotamia 9/27

Civil 1964 Neumann 1994 Pollock 2003

9/29 Powell 1996 Reade 1995 Paper 1 due

5 Egypt 10/4

McGovern 2009 (Ch. 8) Geller 1992 Samuel 1996

10/6 Murray 2000 McGovern 2003 (Ch. 6)

6 Anatolia, Cyprus, and the Levant

10/11 McGovern 2003 (Ch. 9) Koh et al. 2014

10/13 McGovern 2009 (Ch. 6) McGovern 2000

Europe

7 Prehistoric Europe 10/18 McGovern 2009 (Ch. 5)

Nelson 2014

10/20 Dietler 2010 (Ch. 7, 183–224) McGovern et al. 2013

8 Greece 10/25 Hamilakis 1999

Wright 2004

10/27 Davidson 1997 (Ch. 2) Lynch 2012 Paper 2 due

9 Rome 11/1 Faas 1994 (Ch. 3) Thurmond 2006 (Ch. 3)

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11/3 Ellis 2004 Luley and Piquês 2016 Figueiral et al. 2010

The Americas

10 South America 11/8

McGovern 2009 (Ch. 7) Moore 1989 Jennings and Chatfield 2009

11/10 Goldstein et al. 2009 Morris 1979

11 Mesoamerica 11/15 Bruman 2000 (Intro; Ch. 2, 4, 7) NO CLASS 11/17

12 Mesoamerica 11/22

Henderson et al. 2007 Smalley and Blake 2003 Houston et al. 2006 (Ch. 3)

Paper 3 proposal due

NO CLASS: Thanksgiving 11/24

East Asia

13

China 11/29 McGovern 2009 (Ch. 2) McGovern et al. 2005 Wang et al. 2016

China 12/1 Nelson 2003 Poo 1999 McGovern et al. 2004

Conclusions

14 Alcohol in the ancient world 12/6 McGovern 2009 (Ch. 9)

NO CLASS: Reading period 12/8

15 NO CLASS: Final exam period 12/13

NO CLASS: Final exam period 12/15 Paper 3 due

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Readings Braidwood, Robert J., Jonathan D. Sauer, Hans Halbaek, Paul C. Mangelsdorf, Hugh C. Cutler,

Carleton S. Coon, Ralph Linton, Julian Steward, and A. Leo Oppenheim. 1953. Symposium: Did man once live by beer alone? American Anthropologist, New Series 55, no. 4: 515–526.

Bruman, Henry J. 2000. Alcohol in ancient Mexico. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. (Introduction, 3–6; Ch. 2, Mescal and Sotol; Ch. 4, Tesgüino; Ch. 7, Pulque)

Civil, M. 1964. A hymn to the beer goddess and a drinking song. In Studies presented to A. Leo Oppenheim, eds. R. D. Biggs and J. A. Brinkman, 67–89. Chicago: Oriental Institute.

Davidson, James N. 1997. Courtesans and fishcakes: The consuming passions of Classical Athens. New York: St. Martin’s Press. (Ch. 2, Drinking, pp. 36–72)

Dietler, Michael. 1990. Driven by drink: The role of drinking in the political economy and the case of Early Iron Age France. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9: 352–406.

Dietler, Michael. 2006. Alcohol: Anthropological/Archaeological perspectives. Annual review of anthropology 35: 229–249.

Dietler, Michael. 2010. Archaeologies of colonialism: Consumption, entanglement, and violence in ancient Mediterranean France. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Ch. 7, Culinary encounters, pp. 183–224)

Ellis, Steven J. R. 2004. The Pompeian bar: Archaeology and the role of food and drink outlets in an ancient community. Food & History 2, no. 1: 41–58.

Faas, Patrick. 1994. Around the Roman table. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Ch. 3, Wine and other drinks, pp. 102–124)

Figueiral, I., L. Bouby, L. Buffat, H. Petitot, and J.-F. Terral. 2010. Archaeobotany, vine growing and wine producing in Roman Southern France. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 139–149.

Geller, Jeremy. 1992. From prehistory to history: Beer in Egypt. In The followers of Horus: Studies dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman, 1944–1990, eds. Renée Friedman and Barbara Adams, 19–26.

Goldstein, David J., Robin C. Coleman Goldstein, and Patrick R. Williams. 2009. You are what you drink: A sociocultural reconstruction of pre-Hispanic fermented beverage use at Cerro Baúl, Moquegua, Peru. In Drink, power, and society in the Andes, eds. Justin Jennings and Brenda J. Bowser, 133–166. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Hamilakis, Yannis. 1999. Food technologies/Technologies of the body: The social context of wine and oil production and consumption in Bronze Age Crete. World Archaeology 31, no. 1: 38–54.

Henderson, John S., Rosemary A. Joyce, Gretchen R. Hall, W. Jeffrey Hurst, and Patrick E. McGovern. 2007. Chemical and archaeological evidence for the earliest cacao beverages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, no. 48: 18937–18940.

Houston, Stephen, David Stuart, and Karl Taube. 2006. The memory of bones: Body, being, and experience among the Classic Maya. Austin: University of Texas Press. (Ch. 3, Ingestion, 102–133)

Jennings, Justin, Kathleen L. Antrobus, Sam J. Atencio, Erin Glavich, Rebecca Johnson, German Loffler, and Christine Luu. 2005. “Drinking beer in a blissful mood”: Alcohol production, operational chains, and feasting in the ancient world. Current Anthropology 46, no. 2: 275–303.

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Jennings, Justin, and Melissa Chatfield. 2009. Pots, brewers, and hosts: Women’s power and the limits of central Andean feasting. In Drink, power, and society in the Andes, eds. Justin Jennings and Brenda J. Bowser, 200–231. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Koh, Andrew J., Assaf Yasur-Landau, and Eric H. Cline. 2014. Characterizing a Middle Bronze palatial wine cellar from Tel Kabri, Israel. PLoS ONE 9, no. 8: e106406.

Luley, Benjamin P., and Gaël Piquès. 2016. Communal eating and drinking in early Roman Mediterranean France: A possible tavern at Lattara, c. 125–75 BC. Antiquity 90, no. 349: 126–142.

Lynch, Kathleen M. 2012. Drinking and dining. In A companion to Greek art, eds. Tyler Jo Smith and Dimitris Plantzos, 525–542. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

McGee, Harold. 2004. On food and cooking: The science and lore of the kitchen. New York: Scribner. (Ch. 13, Wine, beer, and distilled spirits, 713–771)

McGovern, Patrick E. 2000. The funerary banquet of “King Midas.” Expedition 42, no. 1: 21–29.

McGovern, Patrick E. 2003. Ancient wine: The search for the origins of viniculture. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Ch. 6: Wine of Egypt’s golden age, 107–147; Ch. 9, The Holy Land’s Bounty, pp. 210–238)

McGovern, Patrick E. 2009. Uncorking the past: The quest for wine, beer, and other alcoholic beverages. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Preface; Ch. 1, Homo imbibens: I drink, therefore I am, pp. 1–27; Ch. 2, Along the banks of the Yellow River, pp. 28–59; Ch. 3, The Near Eastern challenge, pp. 60–104; Ch. 5, European bogs, grogs, burials, and binges, pp. 129–158; Ch. 6, Sailing the wind-dark Mediterranean, pp. 159–197; Ch. 7, The sweet, the bitter, and the aromatic in the New World, pp. 198–230; Ch. 8, Africa serves up its meads, wines, and beers, pp. 231–265; Ch. 9, Alcoholic beverages: Whence and whither?, 266–282)

McGovern, Patrick E., Benjamin P. Luley, Nuria Rovira, Armen Mirzoian, Michael P. Callahan, Karen E. Smith, Gretchen R. Hall, Theodore Davidson, and Joshua M. Henkin. 2013. Beginning of viniculture in France. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 25: 10147–10152.

McGovern, Patrick E., Anne P. Underhill, Hui Fang, Fengshui Luan, Gretchen R. Hall, Haiguang Yu, Chen-Shan Wang, Fengshu Cai, Zhijun Zhao, and Gary M. Feinman. 2005. Chemical identification and cultural implications of a mixed fermented beverage from late prehistoric China. Asian Perspectives 44, no. 2: 249–275.

McGovern, Patrick E., Juzhong Zhang, Jigen Tang, Zhiqing Zhang, Gretchen R. Hall, Robert A. Moreau, Alberto Nuñez, Eric D. Butrym, Michael P. Richards, Chen-shan Wang, Guangsheng Cheng, Zhijun Zhao, and Changsui Wang. 2004. Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101, no. 51: 17593–17598.

Moore, Jerry D. 1989. Pre-Hispanic beer in coastal Peru: Technology and social context of prehistoric production. American Anthropologist, New Series 91, no. 3: 682–695.

Morris, Craig. 1979. Maize beer in the economics, politics, and religion of the Inca empire. In Fermented food beverages in nutrition, eds. Clifford F. Gastineau, William J. Darby, and Thomas B. Turner, 21–34. New York: Academic Press.

Murray, Mary Anne. 2000. Viticulture and wine production. In Ancient Egyptian materials and technology, eds. Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw, 577–608. With Neil Boulton and Carl Heron. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Nelson, Max. 2014. The geography of beer in Europe from 1000 BC to AD 1000. In The geography of beer: Regions, environment, and societies, eds. Mark Patterson and Nancy Hoalst–Pullen, 9–21. New York: Springer.

Nelson, Sarah Milledge. 2003. Feasting the ancestors in early China. In The archaeology and politics of food and feasting in early states and empires, eds. Tamara L. Bray, 65–89. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

Neumann, Hans. 1994. Beer as a means of compensation for work in Mesopotamia during the Ur III period. In Drinking in ancient societies: History and culture of drinks in the ancient Near East, ed. Lucio Milano, 321–331. Padova: Sargon srl.

Pollock, Susan. 2003. Feasts, funerals, and fast food in early Mesopotamian states. In The archaeology and politics of food and feasting in early states and empires, ed. Tamara L. Bray, 17–38. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

Poo, Mu-Chou. 1999. The use and abuse of wine in ancient China. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 42, no. 2: 123–151.

Powell, Marvin A. 1996. Wine and the vine in ancient Mesopotamia: The cuneiform evidence. In The origins and ancient history of wine, eds. Patrick E. McGovern, Stuart J. Fleming, and Solomon H. Katz, 97–122. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach Publishers.

Reade, Julian Edgeworth. 1995. The symposion in ancient Mesopotamia: Archaeological evidence. In In vino veritas, eds. Oswyn Murray and Manuela Tecuşan, 35–56. London: British School at Rome.

Samuel, Delwen. 1993. Ancient Egyptian bread and beer: An interdisciplinary approach. In Biological anthropology and the study of ancient Egypt, eds. W. Vivian Davies and Roxie Walker, 156–164. London: British Museum Press.

Samuel, Delwen. 1996. Archaeology of ancient Egyptian beer. Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists 54: 3–11.

Smalley, John, and Michael Blake. 2003. Sweet beginnings: Stalk sugar and the domestication of maize. Current Anthropology 44, no. 5: 675–689.

Steinkraus, Keith H. 1979. Nutritionally significant indigenous foods involving an alcoholic fermentation. In Fermented food beverages in nutrition, eds. Clifford F. Gastineau, William J. Darby, and Thomas B. Turner, 35–59. New York: Academic Press.

Thurmond, David J. 2006. A handbook of food processing in classical Rome: For her bounty no winter. Boston: Brill. (Ch. 3, Wine, 111–164)

Wang, Jiajing, Li Liu, Terry Ball, Linjie Yu, Yuanqing Li, and Fulai Xing. 2016. Revealing a 5,000-y-old beer recipe in China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, no. 23: 6444–6448.

Wright, James C. 2004. A survey of evidence for feasting in Mycenaean society. Hesperia 73: 133–178.