Fancy a glass of beer after a hot summer day? But few would have thought about the origin of the drink. Well, now a group of archaeologists have traced the origins in Israel. A group of researchers from Haifa and Stanford University claim they have found what could be called the oldest brewery site. The study states that beer may have originated some 13,000 years ago! Gold Rush! 15 Million Dollar Worth Gold Unveiled in Australia by Toronto Mining Company. 

The excavation site is located in Raqefet cave in North Israel. The beers were created by the Natufians, a group that lived between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. The findings have been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The group found stone mortars which are used for crushing and fermenting grain. Two of these mortars were used for storing the grains and the third one was to pound them and ferment. Professor Li Liu of Stanford University said, "It indicates that making alcohol was not necessarily a result of agricultural surplus production, but it was developed for ritual purposes and spiritual needs, at least to some extent, prior to agriculture." Brazil's National Museum Catches Fire, Destroys More Than 20 Million Pieces of History. 

To prove their theory the group plans to recreate the brew empirically in a lab and compared the residue with the ones in the ancient mortars. What they created was more like a porridge than what we have as fluid beer today. The drink also had less alcohol content compared to the beers that we get today. But the residue from their creation was very similar to what they found in the cave. So what we drink as a frothy beer was very different for the ancient people. Liu has called their findings the oldest records of man-made alcohol in the world.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 14, 2018 01:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).