Wow, Ancient Egypt Was Capable Of Producing Thousands Of Liters Of Beer For A King's Burial

Ancient Egyptian brewery. (Facebook/Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)

JAKARTA - The joint American-Egyptian research team led by Dr. Matthew Adams of New York University, managed to find an ancient Egyptian beer production site that is claimed to be around 5 thousand years old.

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in a statement said that the ancient site was found in Sohag Governorate and is thought to have originated from the reign of King Narmer around 3,100 BC.

"Divided into eight sections which each contains 40 clay pots to heat the mixture of grain and water, this production facility is capable of producing 22,400 liters of beer," explained Secretary-General of the Egyptian Antiquities Council, Dr. Mostafa Waziry in his statement, as quoted from CNN.

With its estimated age, this beer production facility is the oldest in Abydos.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mathew said, experts believe in the past beer was used for royal burial rituals, especially for the early kings of Egypt. In previous excavations in the area, researchers found beer was used in sacrificial ceremonies.

Quaint brewery. (Facebook/Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)

This discovery is the third time in the near future that it has been made public. Previously, a research team from the University of Santo Domingo, Dominica, led by Kathleen Martinez, was able to find gold tongue mummies and a number of other ancient graves.

Previously, researchers found ancient wooden coffins in the Saqqara area whose traces can be traced back to the New Kingdom period some 3 thousand years ago.

To note, the Egyptian authorities are exhibiting a number of new artifacts to revive the number of tourist visitors. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit Egypt's tourism industry hard.

The number of tourists visiting the country fell to 3.5 million last year from 13.1 million in 2019.