Foreign website sheds light on discovery of oldest brewery in Abydos

CAIRO – 16 February 2021: Ancient-Origins website shed light on the discovery of the oldest brewery in Abydos.

Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Mustafa Waziri said the brewery was found in Abydos, an ancient cemetery located in the desert west of the Nile, more than 280 miles south of Cairo.

Waziri explained that the factory dates back to the era of King Narmer, who is remembered for his unification of ancient Egypt at the beginning of the First Dynasty (3150 BC - 2613 BC), noting that archaeologists have found eight units, each about 65 feet long and 8 feet wide. All of them contain approximately 40 earthenware ponds in two rows, which were used to heat a mixture of grains and water to produce beer.

The joint archaeological mission is co-chaired by Matthew Adams of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and Deborah Fishhook, assistant professor of Ancient Egyptian Art History and Archeology at Princeton University.

For his part, Adams said that the brewery would have been built in this area to provide beer for royal rituals, and that archaeologists have found evidence for the use of beer in sacrificial rites in ancient Egypt.

In the same context, the Ministry of Antiquities said that British archaeologists first mentioned the brewery in the early twentieth century, but they were unable to locate it.

The ancient tombs of Abydos are famous for their numerous monuments that honor Osiris, the god of the underworld in ancient Egypt and the deity responsible for judging spirits in the afterlife.

It is worth noting that Egypt announced dozens of ancient discoveries in the past two years, aiming to attract more tourists.