Abstract
Evžen Neustupný significantly influenced Czech archaeology. The topic of the following study is based on the presentation I gave in the session: "An Archaeologist at the Center of Europe: A Symposium in Honor of Evžen Neustupný" during the Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists in Pilsen on September 7, 2013 on the occasion of his 80th birthday.
The issues addressed in this text follow a number of topics developed by Evžen Neustupný (Neustupný 1967; 1995a; 1995b 1997; 2008; Neustupný & Dvořák 1983). His theory of archaeology (Neustupný 2010) has shaped my view of the past and the relationship between human society and artefacts.
In the following text, I aim to outline the issues associated with the beginnings of the beer production and ceramic vessels and the role of alcoholic beverages in the development of social and economic relations and ritual behaviour of prehistoric farmers. Beer is not only a favourite beverage of archaeologists, but it is also increasingly the subject of their research.
Brewing and the consumption of beer have played crucial roles in human cultures world-wide throughout most prehistoric periods. With the discovery of pottery and the beginnings of brewing beer, it's a bit like a question of what occurred first, whether eggs or hen? It is generally believed that the invention of ceramics in the Near East enabled the common brewing of beer (Turek 2005b).
However, we have to bear in mind that evidence of malting and the oldest brewing dates back to the late Palaeolithic Natufian period (Raqefet Cave, Israel 13,700-11,700 BP, Liu et al. 2018; or Shubayqa 14,600-11,600 BP, Arranz-Otaegui et al. 2018). The whole argument can therefore be reversed and it can be assumed that the development of beer brewing in the Levant initiated a technological innovation of the introduction of ceramic vessels.
The innovation was mainly related to the malting process, i.e. the recovery of sugars from cereal starches, which is a process that is very demanding to maintain at a precise temperature of 45-70 ͦC for up to one hour (Guerra-Doce 2020, 66). Here, the method of using an organic container and inserting heated stones into the infusion seems less effective than bringing the ceramic vessel closer to the fireplace.
Perhaps it was the production of beer that could have been the impetus for the beginning of Neolithic ceramic production.