Independent Researcher

Thesis Title: Barley, Malt & Ale in the Neolithic, completed 1999, published 2004 as BAR S1213

About

Brewing beer or ale from the grain is an ancient biotechnology that probably dates back to the Natufian cultures of the Ancient Near East. Malting, mashing and brewing technology spread rapidly across Europe, reaching the British Isles around six thousand years ago.
http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/prehistoricbrewing.htm

Unlike grapes and honey, which contain natural sugars, grain must be specially processed to make the necessary fermentable sugars. This involves malting and mashing - processes that are almost invisible in the archaeological record. Malting, mashing and fermentation were important aspects of ritual and domestic life in history and prehistory. The transformation of grain into fermentable malt sugars and ale can be accurately described as a ritual activity with magical elements which have only been scientifically understood within the last 100 or so years.

I did my Undergraduate Degree at Manchester University, UK. My Master's Thesis, completed in 1999, investigated ancient and traditional mashing and brewing techniques. One aspect was the possible use of large Grooved Ware pottery as vessels for the fermentation of a sweet barley wort. Another aspect was a study of the archaeological evidence for the saccharification or processing grain into malt sugars in Europe and the Ancient Near East.

These days, I am interested in malt and the traditional technique of floor malting and the role it played in Origin of Grain Agriculture and Natufian culture ten thousand years ago. The Biblical description of a 'land flowing with milk and honey' (Exodus 3:8) could be a metaphor for rich agricultural land. The milk would be from the domesticated cattle and goats/sheep. The 'honey' may refer to the manufacture of sweet wort, liquid fermentable sugars made from grain by first malting, then mashing it.

Descriptions of malting from Sumerian texts of the 4th Millennium BC are the same as descriptions of traditional floor malting in modern Europe.

Since I finished my Thesis there have been excavations that provide evidence for the manufacture of malt sugars in the British Neolithic. For example, caried (decayed) pig teeth were found at Durrington Walls, a Neolithic henge and settlement not far from Stonehenge. The pigs had been fattened up for the feast and were fed something sweet. This was probably spent grain or draff.
See http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/bonecommons/items/show/616 for images of the caried pig teeth (copyright Umberto Albarella).

There is evidence at the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney, for feasting events - hundreds of cattle bones,large Grooved Ware vessels and huge drains have been found. The ceramic assemblage here and at Barnhouse Neolithic Village indicate the consumption of a ritual drink - in all probability, this was ale made from the grain.
 
Over the last fifteen years I have given talks and demonstrations about my research to Archaeology Societies, Conferences, Meetings and at Science Festivals. I have worked as an Adult Education Tutor for Aberdeen University and Manchester University. Contact me if you would like me to visit your Society or University. I may be able to bring samples for tasting.

A discussion of malting and brewing in prehistory took place on the Historic Brewing Forum in 2010:
http://www.pbm.com/pipermail/hist-brewing/2010/thread.html

Photos of medieval and prehistoric brewing demonstrations at Eindhoven Open Air Archaeology Museum (April 2009) are on my Facebook Page at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=57519&id=100000523841008&l=5cefb5c98e