Drinking beer in a blissful mood : Alcohol production, operational chains, and feasting in the ancient world

Feasts were important arenas of political action throughout much of the ancient world. Since alcoholic beverages were liberally consumed at many of these events, a sponsor often faced the daunting problem of assembling prodigious amounts of alcohol in the days preceding a feast. This paper considers traditional methods for making alcoholic beverages in certain regions and demonstrates how the details of each drink's manufacture, such as shelf life, plant maturation, and labor demand, offered challenges and opportunities to those who attempted to organize their mass production. Archaeological investigations of feasting have tended to focus on the political ramifications of the event itself, but the production struggles leading up to a feast are also important to our understanding of the political economies of past societies. Reprinted by permission of the University of Chicago Press. © All rights reserved