A group of American and Egyptian archaeologists excavated a brewery on the territory of Abydos (an ancient city of Egypt, now an archaeological zone), which, apparently, is the oldest such object discovered.
It is reported agency Associated Press (AP).
According to the Secretary General of the Antiquities Service of Egypt, Mustafa Wazira, the brewery seems to date back to the time of Pharaoh Narmer, the founder of the First Dynasty of the Early Kingdom, who ruled at the end of the XXXII century. BC
Archaeologists discovered eight rooms, each 20 m long and 2,5 m wide. Each had about 40 clay tanks in which beer was brewed.
One of the leaders of the archaeological team, Dr. Matthew Adams from the Institute of Fine Arts (at New York University), said that, apparently, the product obtained from this brewery was used for ritual purposes in the ceremonies of the ruling elite. Yes, from the middle of the XNUMXth millennium BC. e. Abydos was an important religious center of Ancient Egypt and one of the main places of worship of the god Osiris.
AP notes that British archaeologists first suggested the existence of a brewery in the area in the 1900s, but then scientists were unable to determine its location.
