TITLE:...AND OLUT FOR ALL! PALETTE:0223 0779 099b 09a9 3EVERYTHING ABOUT BEER 2 By Peto Beer is the eldest alcoholic drink in the world. An unknown Mesopotamian genius invented it in about 4000 B.C. This extremely useful invention became popular in every arable plains - especially in Mesopotamia and Egypt. When there was enough barley for bread, there was enough barley for beer, too. (60% of Sumerian barley was eaten, 40% was drunk!) "An arable plain" is "Edin" in the Sumerian language. "Edin" is the same as Biblical "Eden": the paradise! Sumerians really liked beer. This is a piece of evidence: a 4000-year-old beer recipe! 58,6 l barley + 10 l yeast + 80,8 l malt = 84 l beer This is very much beer to brew at a time, because they were not able to store it. They had to drink it immediately! Beer was also the national drink in Egypt. When Sinuhe (ca.1990-1910 B.C.) arrived in Egypt after a long exile, the first thing he wanted was beer. It's a pity his modern Muslim descendants have forgotten this wonderful invention. Muhammad (570-632 A.D.) forbad only to drink wine. He talked nothing about beer! After several centuries beer was also spreaded from Mesopotamia to the Northern Europe where Celtic, Germanic and Finnic tribes really adopted it. Mesopotamia was not the only place where beer was invented. It was invented 5000 years ago in China and 3000 years ago in Peru, too! This is a good example that the inventions don't necessarily have the same origin. This golden age could not last long. "The Fall of Man" was wine! First the bad Babylonians, then the worse Assyrians conquered the whole Mesopotamia, enslaved Sumerians and imported wine to the fatherland of beer. Egyptians were more conservative; although many fashion-conscious faraos drank wine, the peasantry still loved beer. Even then wine was an elitist drink! Damascus (in Syria) was the center of the wine industry in 1st millennium. Babylonian kings and Jewish prophets were unanimous about that! But Greeks were more patriotic: their favorite wines were brewed in the Greek islands like Thasos, Chios, Lesbos and Rhodos. The Roman wine center was Falernus in Campania. The worst wine in their opinion was brewed in Vaticanus! Is that the reason why the sacramental wine tastes so bad? Etruscans had imported wine to Italy in about 1200 B.C. Over 1000 years later Romans began to spread wine in every province where people still drank beer. This was a very successful operation. Think about France! 2000 years ago every Frenchman drank beer. Now they drink wine as if they have never drunk anything else! However, Romans failed to spread wine in Germany and that was fateful. Germanic tribes destroyed the Roman empire with the power of beer (476 A.D.)!!! But soon the conquerors forgot their ancient traditions and began to drink wine. That was the beginning of the dark Middle Ages... I have collected some names of beer in different languages. When you are traveling around the world, you can now order beer anywhere you want it! Sumerian: 2sikaru1; Akkadian: 2hiqu1 Egyptian: 2hnkt, th1; Koptic: 2skorker, hnke Biblical Hebrew: 2shekar1; Modern Hebrew: 2birah1; Arabic: 2biira Classical Greek: 2brytos, zythos1; Modern Greek: 2mpyra Latin: 2cer(e)vesia1; Provencal: 2cerveza1; Catalan: 2cervesa Spanish: 2cerveza1; Galician: 2cervexa1; Portuguese: 2cerveja Italian: 2birra1; Milanese: 2bira1; French: 2biere1; Rumanian: 2bere Gaul: 2curmi1; Breton: 2bier, kurf1; Cornish: 2coref Old Welsh: 2curm1; Middle Welsh: 2cwrf1; New Welsh: 2cwrw1; Gaelic: 2leann-caol Old Irish: 2coirm, laith, beoir1; New Irish: 2cuirm, lionn, beoir Old English: 2beor, ealu1; Middle English: 2bere, ale1; New English: 2beer Old Saxon: 2bior, alo1; Frisian: 2bir1; Dutch and Afrikaans: 2bier Old High German: 2bior1; Middle High German: 2bier1; New High German: 2bier Old Norse:2 bjorr, ol1; Icelandic:2 bjor, öl1; Danish, Norwegian & Swedish: 2öl Lithuanian: 2alus, pyvas1; Latvian: 2alus1; Albanian: 2birre Old Church Slavic: 2pivo, olu1; Russian, Belorussian and Ukranian: 2pivo Polish:2 piwo1; Czech, Slovenian and Serbo-Croat: 2pivo1; Bulgarian: 2bira Sanskrit: 2yavasura1; Avestan: 2hura1; Persian: 2abe jou1; Kurdish: 2avceh, bire Hungarian: 2sör1; Finnish: 2olut, kalja1; Estonian: 2olu, kali1; Lapp: 2vuolla Basque: 2garagardo1; Turkish:2 bira1; Mongolian:2 piyv1; Korean:2 maek-ju Chinese: 2chiu, pijiu1; Japanese: 2biiru1; Vietnamese, Lao and Thai: 2bia Amharic: 2t'älla, borde, gush1; Somali:2 khamri1; Yoruba:2 oti agbado Swahili: 2bia1; Zulu: 2ubhiya1; Ndonga: 2omalovu1; Malagasy: 2labiere Indonesian: 2bir1; Tagalog: 2serbesa1; Samoan, Tahitian & Hawaiian: 2pia Inca: 2aca1; Maya: 2chicha1; Eskimo: 2imiak1; etc... Cheers! Prost! Skål! A votre sante! Salute! Salud! Saude! Eis ygeian sou! Na zdorove! Egeszsegere! Dearvvasvuhtii! Proosit! Kippis! And the same in Sumerian!