JARS FROM ANTIQUITY The researchers extracted yeasts from these ancient clay jars to recreate beer and mead that taste as good as they did 5,000 years ago. 鈥擜P
JERUSALEM鈥擨sraeli researchers raised a glass on Wednesday to celebrate a long-brewing project of making beer and mead using yeasts extracted from ancient clay vessels 鈥攕ome over 5,000 years old.
Archaeologists and microbiologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and four Israeli universities teamed up to study yeast colonies found in microscopic pores in pottery fragments.
The shards were found at Egyptian, Philistine and Judean archaeological sites in Israel spanning from 3,000 BC to the 4th century BC.
Experimental archeology
The scientists are touting the brews made from 鈥渞esurrected鈥� yeasts as an important step in experimental archaeology, a field that seeks to reconstruct the past in order to better understand the flavor of the ancient world.
鈥淲hat we discovered was that yeast can actually survive for a very, very long time without food,鈥� said Hebrew University microbiologist Michael Klutstein. 鈥淭oday we are able to salvage all these living organisms that live inside the nanopores and to revive them and study their properties.鈥�
Beer was a staple of the daily diet for the people of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Early Egyptian texts refer to a variety of different brews, including 鈥渋ron beer,鈥� 鈥渇riend鈥檚 beer,鈥� and 鈥渂eer of the protector.鈥�
The yeast samples came from nearly two dozen ceramic vessels found in excavations around the country, including a salvage dig in central Tel Aviv, a Persian-era palace in southern Jerusalem and 鈥楨n Besor, a 5,000-year-old Egyptian brewery near Israel鈥檚 border with the Gaza Strip.
The project was spearheaded by Hebrew University microbiologist Ronen Hazan and antiquities authority archaeologist Yitzhak Paz.
Other researchers of ancient beers, such as University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Patrick McGovern, have concocted drinks based on ancient recipes and residue analysis of ceramics.
鈥楯urassic Park,鈥� to a point
But the Israeli scientists say this is the first time fermented drinks have been made from revived ancient yeasts.
Aren Maeir, a Bar Ilan University archaeologist, excavates at Tel es-Safi, the biblical city of Gath, where ancient Philistine beer pots yielded yeasts used to brew a beer offered to journalists.
He likened the revival of long-dormant yeast to the resurrection of ancient beasts fictionalized in 鈥淛urassic Park,鈥� but only to a point.聽 鈥淚n Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs eat the scientists,鈥� he said. 鈥淗ere, the scientists drink the dinosaurs.鈥�
鈥淚t opens up a whole new field of the possibility that perhaps other microorganisms survived as well, and you can identify foods such as cheese, wine, pickles,鈥� opening a portal into tasting cultures of the past, he said.
Ancient flavors
For this initial experiment, the team paired up with a Jerusalem craft brewer to make a basic modern-style ale using yeast extracted from the pots.
The ale had a thick white head, with a caramel color and a distinctly funky nose.
The mead, made using yeast extracted from a vessel found in the ruins of a palace near Jerusalem that contained honey wine roughly 2,400 years ago, was champagne bubbly and dry, with a hint of green apple.
The beer incorporates modern ingredients, like hops, that were not available in the ancient Middle East鈥攂ut it鈥檚 the revived yeast that provides much of the flavor.
鈥淲e tried to recreate some of the old flavors that people in this area were consuming hundreds and thousands of years ago,鈥� said Shmuel Naky, a craft brewer from the Jerusalem Beer Center, who helped produce the beer and mead.
Naky described the beer as 鈥渟picy, and somewhat fruity, and it鈥檚 very complex in flavor,鈥� all attributes produced by the ancient yeast.聽聽 鈥擜P