Posted on 06/19/2006 1:04:07 PM PDT by blam
Jun. 18, 2006 0:24 | Updated Jun. 18, 2006 10:45
11,000-year-old grain shakes up beliefs on beginnings of agriculture
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Bar-Ilan University researchers have found a cache of 120,000 wild oat and 260,000 wild barley grains at the Gilgal archaeological site near Jericho that date back 11,000 years - providing evidence of cultivation during the Neolithic Period.
The research, performed by Drs. Ehud Weiss and Anat Hartmann of BIU's department of Land of Israel studies and Prof. Mordechai Kislev of the faculty of life sciences, appears in the June 16 edition of the prestigious journal Science.
It is the second time in two weeks that Kislev and Hartmann have had an article in Science. They recently wrote about their discovery of 10,000-year-old cultivated figs at the same Jordan Valley site.
According to the researchers, the newest find shows that the transition from nomadic food gathering and the beginning of agriculture were quite different than previously thought. Until now, the general assumption has been that agriculture was begun by a single line of human efforts in one specific area. But the BIU researchers found a much more complicated effort undertaken by different human populations in different regions, drawing a completely new picture of the origins of agriculture.
Agriculture, the BIU researchers suggest, originated through human manipulations of wild plants - sometimes involving the same species - that took place in various spatially and temporally distinct communities. Moreover, some of these occasions were found to be much earlier than previously thought possible.
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
Yeast is not required for bread baking. Think flat bread.
I think there's an urban myth about wheat seeds being grown from those found in King Tutts tomb.
2,000 Year Old Palm Seed Germinates
"Israeli scientists say they've succeeded in growing a sapling from what's believed to be the oldest seed ever germinated – a date palm seed 2,000 years old."
"One of the scientists leading the project said she hopes the ancient DNA from the seed will reveal medicinal secrets that have disappeared from the modern plant."
Ah, a saint with her priorities straight.
From http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/yeast.php
Spontaneous Fermentation
Beer that is exposed to the surrounding open air to allow natural/wild yeast and bacteria to literally infect the beer, are spontaneous fermented beers. One of the typical yeasts is the Brettanomyces Lambicus strain. Beers produced in this fashion are sour, non-filtered and inspired by the traditional lambics of the Zenne-region. This brewing method has been practised for decades in the West Flanders region of Belgium.
Your post encouraged me to pop a cool one (Carlsberg). Ahhhh!
Why do they believe it's 11,000 years old? This goes against the grain.
see post #22
"I didn't think they had violas that long ago.."
Being a southerner, I was wondering who the heck this Viola woman was ... the original woman in "wine, women and song," I guess.
One does not accidentally come upon beer, it must be planned and researched.........
And Moses came down from the mountain with a frosty mud and said "Let there be beer". The people rejoiced.
Wild yeast is all over the place and airborne. There are certain types of Belgian beers that are fermented with wild yeast in open containers.
But somewhere along the line someone did use yeast to make bread, and alcohol would have been smelled in the process. The Egyptians were making beer thousands of years befor Christ. Yeasts were known to exhibit the fermentation processes. Some smart gut, possibly and Egyptian, must have put two and two together and came up with BEER! Thus the phrase, "Walk like an Egyptian!"..........
Well he was gone for forty days. Just long enough............
You joke, but of course.
"Don't drink the water, drink beer" warned Saint Arnold of Metz (b. 580 AD, d. 640), concerned about the dangers of drinking impure water. He believed that the polluted water caused illness, while the boiled and processed water used for beer was a safer alternative. According to legend he ended a plague when he submerged his crucifix into a brew kettle and persuaded people to drink only beer from that "blessed" kettle. He is reported to have said "From man's sweat and God's love, beer came into the world".
AMEN!
This thread has a way of making me thirsty.
Weizenbier. Not the thin American stuff.
Grain Belt beer looks inviting. We have a specialty beer store that I will check to see if I can get it in California.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.