>>There is a fair bit of archaeological evidence to indicate that beer predates bread.
That’s probably bad archaeology. Beer is storable and liquid, so it requires pottery. Bread was eaten as it was made, so all it needs is an oven. So, they find beer pots in dig sites.
I'm still open as to which pre-dated, but the beer theory crowd has some good evidence. It's likely that they happened very close together.
Either way, it's a darn good thing that beer was invented. ;)
/johnny
I can store beer in an animal’s bladder or a bag made of skin or a woven fiber bag coated in pitch or the skull of my enemy.