Like the swelling of the Tigris and Euphrates,
You pour the filtered beer.
Like the onrush of the sacred rivers, Ninkasi,
You pour the filtered beer.
~ Hymn to Ninkasi
The grocery chain where I shop used to have a sign in the beer aisle that read: It was a wise man who invented beer. I didn’t speak to the management about that sign, though I was tempted, but eventually it was taken down. Because, you see, beer was almost certainly invented by a woman.
I had intended to write this article on women and beer brewing, but I soon discovered that’s a topic for an entire book. It’s a book that needs to be written, because while there are many histories of beer, there is a dearth of material focused on women.
The drinking of beer dates so far back in pre-history that we can’t ascertain where or when it first appeared. There is evidence for grain fermentation in Turkey 12,000 years ago and China 9,000 years ago. It is doubtful that brewing was “discovered” in one place and spread; it probably emerged independently all over the world, in both Eastern and Western Hemispheres. By the time a culture had pottery and grain stores, they were probably brewing. The drink may have been developed as a way of utilizing excess grain, with intoxication a happy byproduct. In recorded times women were always the early brewers. Since food production and processing was primarily directed and conducted by women in Neolithic societies, it is easy to see how brewing would be under a woman’s province.
Ancient beer had an alcohol content of less than 1% or as high as 3.5%. The high figure comes from scientific analysis of beer brewed from a Mesopotamian recipe, and scholars speculate that most brewers in Mesopotamia and elsewhere did not attain the high figure. Jean Bottero asserts that alcohol content was so low that drunkenness was rare, though with examples of inebriation present in mythology, I have to wonder.
Mesopotamia was indisputably the greatest beer culture of all time. There are at least half a dozen varieties described in the literature, and beer was consumed daily, usually diluted with as much as 75% water (which supports the idea that the alcohol content was not insignificant). In most countries, rich men switched primarily to wine with the introduction of the fermented grape, but Mesopotamians remained loyal to the barley grain even after they began producing their own wine. Beer was sipped communally through large bowls or vats, presumably to strain residual solids.
The Mesopotamian gods drank quantities of beer several times a day in temple rituals. The goddess who presided over beer was named Ninkasi, and as far as we know she only involved herself in brewing, at least until she took on wine production.
Even as Mesopotamian society grew complex, women continued to brew their own beer at home. Commercial brewers and taverns did a brisk business however. These businesses were run by women for millennia, but as patriarchy progressed men encroached on the territory.
Taverns and the drinking of beer are prominent in many Mesopotamian myths. My favorite intoxication story is Inanna’s visit to Enki, the God of wisdom.
After realizing how wonderful she is, Inanna decides to honor Enki with a visit.
When she leaned against the apple tree, her vulva was wondrous to behold.
Rejoicing at her wondrous vulva, the young woman Inanna applauded herself.
(Wolkstein and Kramer, see below.)
Inanna lives in the night sky as the star Venus, so I envision Inanna embarking in her sky-canoe to visit that other bright star in the sky, Jupiter. This is probably a story about a Venus-Jupiter conjunction.
As Inanna journeys to Enki’s domain, the God of Wisdom, since he knows all things, anticipates her arrival. He tells his servant:
Give her butter cake to eat.
Pour cold water to refresh her heart.
Offer her beer before the statue of the lion.
Treat her like an equal.
Enki entertains Inanna at the Temple of Heaven, drinking liberally of his own beer. His generosity increases in proportion to his intoxication, and he offers Inanna all the accoutrements of civilization: music, writing, textiles, metal working, animal husbandry, the priesthoods. With increasing liberality, he bestows more and more gifts, and with the bestowal of each gift, Inanna says, “I take it!”
As her canoe becomes heavy with shwag, Inanna wisely decides it’s time to head home. She is only a short way across the sky, however, when Enki begins to sober up. Enki asks his servant where his stuff is, and in reply the servant tells him that he has given it to Inanna. Enki sends his servant in pursuit of the Boat of Heaven to retrieve his treasures.
Inanna is outraged at the request to return the gifts. “He gave them to me. They are mine!” she cries.
Enki responds to Inanna’s determination by sending monsters to seize her boat and guide it back to him. He sends wave after wave of monsters, seven times fifty of them. Inanna stands her ground.
Inanna asks her priestess Ninshubur to fight off the monsters and save her boat. Picture Inanna and her humble servant in their space canoe warding off monster after monster in an epic battle. From Earth it would look something like a meteor shower. Ninshubur rises to the challenge and wards off all the monsters as Inanna escapes with her valuable cargo.
Inanna orders her boat to dock in her city of Uruk. There she unloads treasure after treasure, more than Enki had given her, even, to share with her people. She says:
Let all the lands proclaim my noble name.
Let the people sing my praises.
Then Enki, perhaps recovering from his hangover, blesses the city of Uruk as well.
Let the citizens of your city prosper,
Let the children of Uruk rejoice.
Sources:
Alok Bannerjee, World’s Oldest Known Beer Recipe Comes from Mesopotamia, Realm of History, September 9, 2017.
Jean Bottero, The Oldest Cuisine in the World, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004).
Flagstaff Grand Canyon Ale Trail, Ninkasi, Goddess of Beer, May 5, 2014.
Live Science, Sumerian Beer May Have Been Alcohol Free, January, 18, 2012.
Joshua J. Mark, Ancient History Encyclopedia, Beer in the Ancient World, March 2, 2011.
Tate Paulette and Michael Fisher, Potent Potables of the Past: Beer and Brewing in Mesopotamia, The Ancient Near East Today, April 2017.
Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer (New York: Harper and Row, 1983).
Also see my blog posts Drinking in Mesopotamia and More Drinking in Mesopotamia.