The Fascinating World of Alcohol Archaeology

Many people have a drink of beer with their friends to socialize — and this is not a new phenomenon with drinking being part of life throughout recorded history. Icelandic sagas, Greek mythology and Roman histories all contain tales of feasts with beer drunk until men were incapable of word or deed.

But what did the ancient ales taste like? What was in them? Let’s find out by taking a crawl through a fascinating branch of research — alcohol archaeology.

Researching Ancient Ales

Before modern techniques in archaeology and chemistry — researchers had to rely on historical texts and documents to know what people in the past had to drink. Luckily for archaeologists, ancient rituals mean that graves and tombs of ‘important’ people contain artefacts that tell us about their lives. And one of the items frequently buried with people are drinking vessels.

From these vessels it is possible to use modern techniques and ideas to investigate what those vessels once contained. This allows archaeologists the chance to piece together what our ancestors had to drink and how they made it. A paper published in the Danish Journal of Archaeology — “A biomolecular archaeological approach to ‘Nordic grog’” — describes some of the techniques used to determine the ingredients used in ancient beers in Scandinavia over 2000 years ago. And unfortunately for hay fever sufferers — pollen is key.

Palynological Analysis and Chromatography

Palynological analysis is the study of pollen and spores — both living and fossilized — and is one of the key tools in determining the contents of the ancient drinking vessels. Pollen is very hardy and survives inside the vessels even after the contents have dried up. By taking samples from the vessels, archaeobotanists can look at the pollen and identify the different types of plants used in that drink. Many of the drinks were based on honey or mead — a fermented honey — and palynologists can even identify the plants visited by the bees who made the honey.

Another key technique for helping the alcohol archaeologists is chromatography. In the study referenced above, McGovern et al describe the use of GC-MS (gas chromatography – mass spectrometry) and LC/MS/MS (ultra HPLC tandem mass spectrometry) in helping to identify the residues found in the Scandinavian drinking vessels including plant sterols and wax residues — providing the team with further evidence of the ingredients used in making Nordic Grog.

LC/MS/MS is a technique used in food analysis as discussed in these Chromatography Today articles on maleic acid and meat adulteration.

Kvasir — a 3500 year old ale

Working alongside Patrick McGovern, the lead author on the paper, the Dogfish Head brewery in Delaware USA, has made a brew called Kvasir containing honey, wheat, lingonberries, cranberries and herbs. The beer, based on analysis of residues of a container found in a coffin in Egtved, Denmark, tastes sweet with an earthy counterpunch due to the herbs used.

Next time you’re ordering a pint — raise your glass to the alcohol archaeologists keeping the ales of the past alive.