Fwd: Another learned article from your Hash Science Correspondent

[Ferenc Domján]

To beer or not to beer?

That is not a question, not any more.

Read here the brilliant answer transferred by our dear Hungarian hashing compatriot, the legendary British scientist, Incredible Hulk: 

---------- Forwarded message ---------
Feladó: Incredible Hulk <inc.hulk.rh3>
Date: 2025. dec. 18., Cs, 23:01
Subject: Another learned article from your Hash Science Correspondent
To: Incredible Hulk <inc.hu...@gmail.com>

A question for intelligent hashers everywhere:

Could BEER be the whole reason for human 'civilisation'?

A serious article in New Scientist is entitled "Did ancient humans start farming so they could drink more beer?". 

The article says "New evidence suggests that alcohol was a surprisingly big motivator in our monumental transition from hunting and gathering to farming – but was beer really more important to us than bread?"

Expert archaeologists of brewing have now managed to find good evidence that humans settled down to farm, to grow cereals in order to make beer, which was used in religious ceremonies. I am sure they made bread as well, after all, after quaffing a few beers they got hungry and needed a nice mammoth sandwich, or something. 

So if beer was the reason man changed from a hunter-gatherer, to settlements that farmed, then beer is indeed the main reason for what we call Civilisation! 

After every Hash, we gather together in a circle, and the RA leads the Down Down ceremony, recalling the origins of our civilisation, with the modern version of the beer of the ancients! 

OnOn!!!  Incredible Hulk

The New Scientist is behind a pay-wall. Don't tell anyone, but you can read the whole article by cheating with the link: 

https://removepaywalls.com/3/https://www.newscientist.com/article/2501758-did-ancient-humans-start-farming-so-they-could-drink-more-beer

[James PEARSON]

Re : To beer or not to beer?

I have also read about the "Beer Hypothesis" which is popularized by scholars like Brian Hayden, which posits that prehistoric humans domesticated grains primarily for brewing rather than bread-making around 10,000 BCE. Evidence from Raqefet Cave residues indicates 13,000-year-old beer production among Natufians, potentially spurring irrigation and permanent villages. This theory challenges the traditional view that bread drove agriculture, emphasizing beer's nutritional and ritual value in early societies.
​
Supporting Evidence :
1) Göbekli Tepe's brewing vats predate full grain domestication, hinting beer fueled communal rituals and proto-cities.
​https://wildhunt.org/2025/02/in-praise-of-beer-the-source-of-civilisation.html

2) Sumerians revered Ninkasi, beer goddess, with recipes on clay tablets, integrating it into religion and economy.​
https://sciencemadefun.net/blog/drinking-the-beer-of-eternity-scientific-research-indicates-that-beer-was-the-inspiration-for-the-earliest-human-civilization/

3) During the Industrial Revolution, brewing advanced thermometers, pasteurization, and yeast science.​
https://firstkey.com/part-2-beers-contributions-to-humanity-a-catalyst-for-scientific-and-technological-development/

On-On
OMT

Ferenc Domján <domjan...@gmail.com> a écrit:

> To beer or not to beer?
> That is not a question, not any more.
> Read here the brilliant answer transferred by our dear Hungarian hashing
> compatriot, the legendary British scientist, Incredible Hulk:
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> Feladó: Incredible Hulk <inc.hulk.rh3>
> Date: 2025. dec. 18., Cs, 23:01
> Subject: Another learned article from your Hash Science Correspondent
> To: Incredible Hulk <inc.hu...@gmail.com>
>
> A question for intelligent hashers everywhere:
>

> *Could BEER be the whole reason for human 'civilisation'?*

>
> A serious article in New Scientist is entitled "Did ancient humans start
> farming so they could drink more beer?".

> The article says "*New evidence suggests that alcohol was a surprisingly

> big motivator in our monumental transition from hunting and gathering to

> farming – but was beer really more important to us than bread?*"

[Ferenc Domján]

😛

Ferenc Domján a Gmailen keresztül reagált