tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/babylonians-46413/articles
Babylonians – The Conversation
2020-08-24T12:18:31Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/142215
2020-08-24T12:18:31Z
2020-08-24T12:18:31Z
Brewing Mesopotamian beer brings a sip of this vibrant ancient drinking culture back to life
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352345/original/file-20200811-19-11yl8ks.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=65%2C312%2C1353%2C547&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cylinder seal (left) and modern impression (right) showing two people drinking beer through long straws. Khafajeh, Iraq (Early Dynastic period, c. 2600–2350 B.C.). </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://oi-idb.uchicago.edu/id/61722c88-6efd-4b76-a98f-8bd9acf7b43a">Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been about five months since I set foot in a bar. Like many of you navigating life in a pandemic, I miss bars. I miss the simple pleasure of sharing a beer with friends. And I know I’m not alone. </p>
<p>People have been gathering over a beer for thousands of years. As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=usYo1yAAAAAJ">archaeologist</a>, I can tell you <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520267985/uncorking-the-past">the history of beer</a> stretches deep into the human past – and the history of bars is not far behind.</p>
<p>If you could travel back in time to one of the bustling cities of ancient Mesopotamia (c. 4000–330 B.C.), for example, you would have no trouble finding yourself a bar or a beer. Beer was the <a href="https://youtu.be/nDva-HQmLUo">beverage of choice in Mesopotamia</a>. In fact, to be a Mesopotamian was to drink beer.</p>
<h2>A beloved beverage</h2>
<p>For the Sumerians, Akkadians and Babylonians, the ancient inhabitants of modern-day Iraq, beer was a daily staple and an essential component of social life. It was a beloved beverage, celebrated in <a href="http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section4/tr4231.htm">poetry</a> and <a href="http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/tr55a.htm">song</a>.</p>
<p>But it was also <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/drinking-in-ancient-societies-history-and-culture-of-drinks-in-the-ancient-near-east-papers-of-a-symposium-held-in-rome-may-17-19-1990/oclc/33497775">recognized as a potent force</a> whose consumption could prove risky. In Mesopotamian literature, drinking beer could lead to confusion, <a href="http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.1.1#">loss of control</a> and <a href="http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr131.htm">poor judgment</a>.</p>
<p>Beer was also known to produce unwanted physical effects, like a certain less-than-stellar feeling the morning after or <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/drinking-in-ancient-societies-history-and-culture-of-drinks-in-the-ancient-near-east-papers-of-a-symposium-held-in-rome-may-17-19-1990/oclc/33497775">an inability to perform sexually</a>. Still, Mesopotamians continued to drink their beer with enjoyment and gusto. A common scene in the artistic record depicts a <a href="https://youtu.be/l2iHAgPV-EQ">man and woman having sex</a>, while the woman drinks beer.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352551/original/file-20200812-14-1cz764e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Standing man penetrating a standing woman who is bent over sipping beer out of an urn with a straw" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352551/original/file-20200812-14-1cz764e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352551/original/file-20200812-14-1cz764e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352551/original/file-20200812-14-1cz764e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352551/original/file-20200812-14-1cz764e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352551/original/file-20200812-14-1cz764e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352551/original/file-20200812-14-1cz764e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352551/original/file-20200812-14-1cz764e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Clay plaque showing a man and woman having sex, while the woman drinks beer through a straw (Old Babylonian period, c. 1800 B.C.).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/32605001">© The Trustees of the British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The key to this impressive example of multitasking was the humble straw. Typically, the straw would have been crafted from a hollow reed or, for the fancier set, bronze or gold. Numerous artistic renderings show one or more people seated genteelly by a pot, drinking beer through long straws.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351429/original/file-20200805-16-ykskhw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Stone plaque showing people gathered drinking out of cups" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351429/original/file-20200805-16-ykskhw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351429/original/file-20200805-16-ykskhw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351429/original/file-20200805-16-ykskhw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351429/original/file-20200805-16-ykskhw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351429/original/file-20200805-16-ykskhw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351429/original/file-20200805-16-ykskhw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351429/original/file-20200805-16-ykskhw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A banquet scene. Khafajeh, Iraq, (c. 2600–2350 B.C.).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://oi-idb.uchicago.edu/id/36098fce-449e-4613-9130-4075af42f247">Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other renderings show banquet scenes, where attendees are surrounded by servants and drink from cups or goblets. The absence of straws makes it less certain these drinkers are consuming beer. It could be wine, for example. But it probably isn’t water. </p>
<p>These scenes offer a glimpse into the drinking world of the well-to-do. But people across the social spectrum enjoyed beer: rich and poor, male and female, young and old. Kings, queens, soldiers, farmers, messengers, carpenters, priests, prostitutes, musicians, children – everybody drank beer. They drank it at home, on the job, at feasts and festivals, in the temple and at the neighborhood tavern.</p>
<p>In the academic literature, there has been a persistent suggestion – well on its way to becoming an unquestioned assumption – that the <a href="https://www.mpg.de/4987500/sumerian_beer">beers of Mesopotamia were low or extremely low in alcohol content</a>. This is, however, just an assumption. </p>
<p>Some of the beers of ancient Mesopotamia might have been “near beers” with little discernible effect on the imbiber. But, the drinking of beer was also <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/drinking-in-ancient-societies-history-and-culture-of-drinks-in-the-ancient-near-east-papers-of-a-symposium-held-in-rome-may-17-19-1990/oclc/33497775">clearly recognized to lead to inebriation</a>. I suspect the argument for low-alcohol beer in Mesopotamia has more to do with current, conflicted attitudes towards alcohol than any past reality. </p>
<h2>What did the beers of ancient Mesopotamia taste like?</h2>
<p>If you could somehow procure a taste of a 4,000-year-old beer (miraculously preserved in its original state of freshness) from, say, the city of Ur, would you enjoy the experience? Would you even recognize it as beer? </p>
<p>First off, let’s just banish all discussion of whether or not their beer was gross or nasty or otherwise unpleasant. They loved their beer. Enough said. </p>
<p>Like many beers enjoyed across the world today, theirs was <a href="http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503583785-1">built on a base of malted barley</a>. And it could include date syrup, emmer wheat, and various roasted, toasted, or baked grain products. But <a href="http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503583785-1">Mesopotamian beer was not flavored with hops</a>, and it was probably on the thick, porridgey side. Their beer certainly diverged from the hopped-up IPAs and crisp lagers of the 21st century. Exactly how much is difficult to say.</p>
<p>Since no one has yet unearthed that sample of 4,000-year-old beer, one of the best ways to gauge the character of Mesopotamian beer is to brew some yourself and give it a try. This is what archaeologists call experimental archaeology. Over the years, a number of different groups have <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-10-22-9710220112-story.html">sought to bring the beers of ancient Mesopotamia back to life</a>. </p>
<p>No ancient brewing manual has yet come to light, but experimental brewers can turn to plenty of resources for guidance: the excavated remains of ancient brewing facilities and equipment, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2018.05.010">traces of beer</a> preserved within ceramic vessels and thousands of cuneiform tablets featuring information about beer and brewing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351430/original/file-20200805-24-1s9vm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A tray of glasses containing a milky-looking, modern-day Mesopotamian beer" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351430/original/file-20200805-24-1s9vm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351430/original/file-20200805-24-1s9vm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351430/original/file-20200805-24-1s9vm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351430/original/file-20200805-24-1s9vm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351430/original/file-20200805-24-1s9vm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351430/original/file-20200805-24-1s9vm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351430/original/file-20200805-24-1s9vm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Serving up a taste of the past. Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, Ohio, 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kathryn Grossman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I myself have been <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2013-07-05-ct-met-sumerian-beer-20130705-story.html">involved with a collaborative effort</a> joining the <a href="https://oi.uchicago.edu/">University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute</a> and <a href="https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/">Great Lakes Brewing Company</a>. Many <a href="https://www.chicagobeergeeks.com/2013/12/the-gods-must-be-crazy/">intrepid tasters have sampled</a> <a href="http://3beersin3days.blogspot.com/2014/04/sumerian-beer-dinner-gage-and-great.html">our Gilgamash and Enkibru</a>, <a href="https://www.ozy.com/the-new-and-the-next/the-art-of-making-and-of-course-drinking-ancient-booze/39045/">two experimental brews</a> named after the famous adventuring duo, <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-73444">Gilgamesh and Enkidu</a>. Assessments <a href="https://untappd.com/b/great-lakes-brewing-company-enkibru-ancient-equipment-version/431286">have generally</a> <a href="https://untappd.com/b/great-lakes-brewing-company-gilgamash/445708">been positive</a>. The Enkibru (the more authentic of the two) is flat, lukewarm, sour, milky-looking and sometimes a bit cloying. But it’s also intriguing and, in our version, yes, intoxicating.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Peering down into the murky liquid, bits of grain husk floating on the surface, taking a good long sip through a reed straw and feeling that alcoholic punch hit you – it feels a little like stepping into a time machine. Our experimental recreation is far from perfect, but it provides a unique kind of sensory connection with the past.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351431/original/file-20200805-24-12pfdc0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People gathered around a large vessel drinking from long straws." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351431/original/file-20200805-24-12pfdc0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351431/original/file-20200805-24-12pfdc0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351431/original/file-20200805-24-12pfdc0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351431/original/file-20200805-24-12pfdc0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351431/original/file-20200805-24-12pfdc0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351431/original/file-20200805-24-12pfdc0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351431/original/file-20200805-24-12pfdc0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bottoms up, Sumerian-style.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kathryn Grossman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I like to think the beer aficionados and bar flies of ancient Mesopotamia, who themselves were <a href="https://narratively.com/the-king-who-ordered-a-quarantine-to-flatten-the-curve-4000-years-ago/">no strangers to epidemics</a>, might genuinely sympathize with the challenges of 2020. But I wonder what they would make of our beer, the beer of the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142215/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tate Paulette consults with Great Lakes Brewing Company. </span></em></p>
Beer was extremely popular in ancient Mesopotamia. Sipped through straws, it differed from today’s beer and was enjoyed by people from all walks of life.
Tate Paulette, Assistant Professor of History, North Carolina State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/136434
2020-05-12T12:35:50Z
2020-05-12T12:35:50Z
The dirty history of soap
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333754/original/file-20200508-49546-dx6y3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=126%2C364%2C4404%2C3169&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How many times a day do you use soap?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bar-soap-royalty-free-image/530859976">Paul Linse/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html">Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds</a>.” That’s what the CDC has advised all Americans to do to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during this pandemic.</p>
<p>It’s common-sense advice. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/03/20/dear-science-how-does-soap-make-things-clean/">surfactants found in soap lift germs from the skin</a>, and water then washes them away. Soap is inexpensive and ubiquitous; it’s a consumer product found in every household across the country.</p>
<p>Yet few people know the long and dirty history of making soap, the product we all rely on to clean our skin. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZG3N6Cr_wT0C&hl=en&oi=ao">I’m a historian who focuses on material culture</a> in much of my research. As I started digging into what’s known about soap’s use in the past, I was surprised to discover its messy origins.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333755/original/file-20200508-49546-550d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333755/original/file-20200508-49546-550d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333755/original/file-20200508-49546-550d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333755/original/file-20200508-49546-550d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333755/original/file-20200508-49546-550d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333755/original/file-20200508-49546-550d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333755/original/file-20200508-49546-550d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333755/original/file-20200508-49546-550d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From animal fat to coal tar, what goes in tends to be pretty dirty.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/advertising-during-the-first-world-war-in-1915-wrights-coal-news-photo/1080227192">SeM/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gross ingredients to clean things up</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/bk-2015-1211.ch009">Ancient Mesopotamians were first to produce</a> a kind of soap by cooking fatty acids – like the fat rendered from a slaughtered cow, sheep or goat – together with water and an alkaline like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/lye">lye</a>, a caustic substance derived from wood ashes. The result was a greasy and smelly goop that lifted away dirt.</p>
<p>An early mention of soap comes in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282650616_An_Ancient_Cleanser_Soap_Production_and_Use_in_Antiquity">Roman scholar Pliny the Elder’s</a> book “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=nvBDAQAAMAAJ&q=sapo#v=onepage&accltump;q=soap&f=false">Naturalis Historia</a>” from A.D. 77. He described soap as a pomade made of tallow – typically derived from beef fat – and ashes that the Gauls, particularly the men, applied to their hair to give it “a reddish tint.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333756/original/file-20200508-49550-1mcaftr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333756/original/file-20200508-49550-1mcaftr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333756/original/file-20200508-49550-1mcaftr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1276&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333756/original/file-20200508-49550-1mcaftr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1276&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333756/original/file-20200508-49550-1mcaftr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1276&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333756/original/file-20200508-49550-1mcaftr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333756/original/file-20200508-49550-1mcaftr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333756/original/file-20200508-49550-1mcaftr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A strigil and flask.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/strigil-and-flask-roman-a-strigil-was-a-curved-blade-used-news-photo/464504797">Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ancient people used these early soaps to clean wool or cotton fibers before weaving them into cloth, rather than for human hygiene. Not even the Greeks and Romans, who pioneered running water and public baths, <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/hygiene-in-ancient-rome-and-baths-119136">used soap to clean their bodies</a>. Instead, men and women immersed themselves in water baths and then smeared their bodies with scented olive oils. They used a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1976.0080">metal or reed scraper called a strigil</a> to remove any remaining oil or grime.</p>
<p>By the Middle Ages, new vegetable-oil-based soaps, which were hailed for their mildness and purity and smelled good, had come into use as luxury items among Europe’s most privileged classes. The first of these, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-soap/modern-threat-to-syrias-ancient-aleppo-soap-industry-idUSTRE69L1ID20101022">Aleppo soap, a green, olive-oil-based bar soap</a> infused with aromatic laurel oil, was produced in Syria and brought to Europe by Christian crusaders and traders.</p>
<p>French, Italian, Spanish and eventually English versions soon followed. Of these, <a href="https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/opinion/comment/a-short-history-of-soap/20066753.article?firstPass=false">Jabon de Castilla</a>, or Castile soap, named for the region of central Spain where it was produced, was the best known. The white, olive-oil-based bar soap was a wildly popular toiletry item among European royals. Castile soap became <a href="https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/opinion/comment/a-short-history-of-soap/20066753.article?firstPass=false">a generic term for any hard soap of this type</a>.</p>
<p>The settlement of the American colonies coincided with an age (1500s-1700s) when most Europeans, whether privileged or poor, had turned away from regular bathing out of <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300171556/foul-bodies">fear that water actually spread disease</a>. Colonists used soap primarily for domestic cleaning, and soap-making was part of the seasonal domestic routine overseen by women.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22675/22675-h/22675-h.htm">As one Connecticut woman described it in 1775</a>, women stored fat from butchering, grease from cooking and wood ashes over the winter months. In the spring, they made lye from the ashes and then boiled it with fat and grease in a giant kettle. This produced a soft soap that women used to wash the <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300171556/foul-bodies">linen shifts that colonists wore as undergarments</a>.</p>
<p>In the new nation, the founding of soap manufactories like New York-based <a href="https://www.supplytime.com/Blogs/Blog/History-of-Colgate-Palmolive-Company_23.aspx">Colgate, founded in 1807</a>, or the Cincinnati-based <a href="https://www.pg.com/en_US/downloads/media/Fact_Sheets_CompanyHistory.pdf">Procter & Gamble, founded in 1837</a>, increased the scale of soap production but did little to alter its ingredients or use. Middle-class Americans <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1894408">had resumed water bathing, but still shunned soap</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2007.00388.x">Soap-making remained an extension of the tallow trade</a> that was closely allied with candle making. Soap itself was for laundry. At the first P&G factory, laborers used large cauldrons to <a href="https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk000401r2p/?brand=oac4">boil down fat collected from homes, hotels and butchers</a> to make the candles and soap they sold.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333757/original/file-20200508-49565-mm0nq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333757/original/file-20200508-49565-mm0nq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333757/original/file-20200508-49565-mm0nq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333757/original/file-20200508-49565-mm0nq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333757/original/file-20200508-49565-mm0nq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333757/original/file-20200508-49565-mm0nq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333757/original/file-20200508-49565-mm0nq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333757/original/file-20200508-49565-mm0nq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers tended to soap in large tanks in a French factory circa 1870.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-manufacture-of-soap-in-large-tanks-in-the-19th-century-news-photo/929239368">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From cleaning objects to cleaning bodies</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/ed079p1172">The Civil War was the watershed</a>. Thanks to reformers who touted regular washing with water and soap as a sanitary measure to aid the Union war effort, bathing for personal hygiene caught on. <a href="https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Procter_%26_Gamble">Demand for inexpensive toilet soaps increased</a> dramatically among the masses.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333758/original/file-20200508-49558-6zabpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333758/original/file-20200508-49558-6zabpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333758/original/file-20200508-49558-6zabpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333758/original/file-20200508-49558-6zabpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333758/original/file-20200508-49558-6zabpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333758/original/file-20200508-49558-6zabpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333758/original/file-20200508-49558-6zabpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333758/original/file-20200508-49558-6zabpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palmolive ads, like this one from 1900, stressed the exotic ingredients in the green bar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018696682/">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Companies began to develop and market a variety of new products to consumers. In 1879, P&G introduced <a href="https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk000401r2p/?brand=oac4">Ivory soap</a>, one of the first perfumed toilet soaps in the U.S. B.J. Johnson Soap Company of Milwaukee followed with their own palm-and-olive-oil-based <a href="https://www.milwaukeemag.com/story-behind-this-bar-of-palmolive-soap/">Palmolive soap</a> in 1898. It was the <a href="https://www.supplytime.com/Blogs/Blog/History-of-Colgate-Palmolive-Company_23.aspx">world’s best-selling soap by the early 1900s</a>.</p>
<p>Soap chemistry also began to change, paving the way for the modern era. At P&G, <a href="https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk000401r2p/?brand=oac4">decades of laboratory experiments</a> with imported coconut and palm oil, and then with domestically produced cottonseed oil, led to the <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publication/?seqNo115=210614">discovery of hydrogenated fats in 1909</a>. These solid, vegetable-based fats revolutionized soap by making its manufacture less dependent on animal byproducts. <a href="https://www.cleaninginstitute.org/understanding-products/why-clean/soaps-detergents-history">Shortages of fats and oils for soap</a> during World Wars I and II also led to the discovery of synthetic detergents as a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/soap/Early-synthetic-detergents">“superior” substitute</a> for fat-based laundry soaps, household cleaners and shampoos.</p>
<p>Today’s commercially manufactured soaps are <a href="http://www.soaphistory.net/soap-facts/soap-types/">highly specialized</a>, lab-engineered products. Synthesized animal fats and plant-based oils and bases are combined with <a href="https://www.bare-soaps.com/blogs/your-impact/116431557-what-s-in-a-bar-of-soap">chemical additives</a>, including moisturizers, conditioners, lathering agents, colors and scents, to make soaps more appealing to the senses. But they cannot fully mask its mostly foul ingredients, including <a href="http://www.soaphistory.net/soap-history/history-of-liquid-soap-and-shower-gel/">shower gels’</a> petroleum-based contents.</p>
<p>As a 1947 history of P&G observed: “<a href="https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk000401r2p/?brand=oac4">Soap is a desperately ordinary substance to us</a>.” As unremarkable as it is during normal times, soap has risen to prominence during this pandemic.</p>
<p>[<em>Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-facts">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136434/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Judith Ridner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
With hand-washing top of mind, soap is an integral part of keeping clean. But people through the ages relied on earlier forms of soap more for cleaning objects than for personal hygiene.
Judith Ridner, Professor of History, Mississippi State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/128761
2020-01-13T11:48:20Z
2020-01-13T11:48:20Z
Why are there seven days in a week?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308681/original/file-20200106-123407-oogvyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C120%2C5760%2C3656&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Your calendar dates back to Babylonian times. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blue-circle-mark-on-calendar-7-288594710">Aleksandra Pikalova/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Why are there seven days in a week? – Henry E., age 8, Somerville, Massachusetts</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>Waiting for the weekend can often seem unbearable, a whole six days between Saturdays. Having seven days in a week has been the case for a very long time, and so people don’t often stop to ask why. </p>
<p>Most of our time reckoning is due to the movements of the planets, Moon and stars. Our day is equal to one full rotation of the Earth around its axis. Our year is a revolution of the Earth around the Sun, which takes 365 and ¼ days, which is why we add <a href="http://www.maa.clell.de/Scholar/times.html">an extra day in February</a> every four years, for a leap year. </p>
<p>But the week and the month are a bit trickier. The phases of the Moon do not exactly coincide with the solar calendar. The Moon cycle is 27 days and seven hours long, and there are 13 phases of the Moon in each solar year. </p>
<p>Some of the earliest civilizations observed the cosmos and recorded the movements of planets, the Sun and Moon. <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3615508.html">The Babylonians</a>, who lived in modern-day Iraq, were astute observers and interpreters of the heavens, and it is largely thanks to them that our weeks are seven days long. </p>
<p>The reason they adopted the number seven was that they observed seven celestial bodies – the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. So, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1179/030801882789801278">that number held particular significance</a> to them.</p>
<p>Other civilizations chose other numbers – like the Egyptians, whose week was 10 days long; or the Romans, whose week lasted eight.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308683/original/file-20200106-123377-vgoylp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308683/original/file-20200106-123377-vgoylp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308683/original/file-20200106-123377-vgoylp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308683/original/file-20200106-123377-vgoylp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308683/original/file-20200106-123377-vgoylp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308683/original/file-20200106-123377-vgoylp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308683/original/file-20200106-123377-vgoylp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308683/original/file-20200106-123377-vgoylp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some of the earliest civilizations recorded the movements of planets, the Sun and Moon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/milky-way-rises-over-pine-trees-384983128">Andrey Prokhorov/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Babylonians divided their lunar months into seven-day weeks, with the final day of the week holding particular religious significance. The 28-day month, or a complete cycle of the Moon, is a bit too large a period of time to manage effectively, and so the Babylonians divided their months into four equal parts of seven. </p>
<p>The number seven is not especially well-suited to coincide with the solar year, or even the months, so it did create a few inconsistencies. </p>
<p>However, the Babylonians were such a dominant culture in the Near East, especially in the sixth and seventh centuries B.C., that this, and many of their other notions of time – such as a 60-minute hour – persisted. </p>
<p>The seven-day week spread throughout the Near East. It was adopted by the Jews, who had been captives of the Babylonians at the height of that civilization’s power. Other cultures in the surrounding areas got on board with the seven-day week, including the Persian empire and the Greeks. </p>
<p>Centuries later, when Alexander the Great began to spread Greek culture throughout the Near East as far as India, the concept of the seven-day week spread as well. Scholars think that perhaps India later introduced the seven-day week to China. </p>
<p>Finally, once the Romans began to conquer the territory influenced by Alexander the Great, they too eventually shifted to the seven-day week. It was Emperor Constantine who decreed that the seven-day week was <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/283524?seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents">the official Roman week</a> and made Sunday a public holiday in A.D. 321. </p>
<p>The weekend was not adopted until modern times in the 20th century. Although there have been <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_calendar">some recent attempts to change the seven-day week</a>, it has been around for so long that it seems like it is here to stay. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the details on Earth’s revolution around the Sun.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristin Heineman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Babylonians’ calendar was passed down from civilization to civilization.
Kristin Heineman, Instructor in History, Colorado State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/87569
2017-11-17T20:41:11Z
2017-11-17T20:41:11Z
Feeling guilty about drinking? Well, ask the saints
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195239/original/file-20171117-19305-17d3usa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pious drinking.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWalter_Dendy_Sadler_(1854_-1923)_The_monks_repast.jpg">Walter Dendy Sadler via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each year the holidays bring with them an increase in both the consumption of <a href="http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/sponsor-story/kaiser-permanente/2015/12/03/alcohol-consumption-increases-during-holidays/76744200/">alcohol</a> and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/christmas-drinking-binge-increase-alcohol-dependence-alcoholism-risk-expert-a7488401.html">concern about drinking’s harmful effects.</a> </p>
<p>Alcohol abuse is no laughing matter, but is it sinful to drink and make merry, moderately and responsibly, during a holy season or at any other time? </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.baylor.edu/great_texts/index.php?id=100028">historical theologian</a>, I <a href="https://www.regnery.com/books/drinking-with-the-saints/">researched</a> the role that pious Christians played in developing and producing alcohol. What I discovered was an astonishing history. </p>
<h2>Religious orders and wine-making</h2>
<p>Wine was invented <a href="https://vinepair.com/booze-news/oldest-winemaking-site/?utm_source=The+Drop+by+VinePair&utm_campaign=508c000821-Oct_7_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b653fb8c99-508c000821-46572873&goal=0_b653fb8c99-508c000821-46572873&mc_cid=508c000821&mc_eid=044391995d">6,000 years</a> before the birth of Christ, but it was monks who largely preserved viniculture in Europe. Religious orders such as the Benedictines and Jesuits became expert winemakers. They stopped only because their lands were confiscated in the 18th and 19th centuries by anti-Catholic governments such as the French Revolution’s <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/gemma-betros/french-revolution-and-catholic-church">Constituent Assembly</a> and Germany’s <a href="https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=8670">Second Reich</a>.</p>
<p>In order to celebrate the Eucharist, which requires the use of bread and wine, Catholic missionaries brought their knowledge of vine-growing with them to the New World. Wine grapes were first introduced to Alta California in 1779 by Saint Junipero Serra and his Franciscan brethren, laying the foundation for the <a href="http://www.discovercaliforniawines.com/wp-content/files_mf/ecawinehistory.pdf">California wine industry</a>. A similar pattern emerged in <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=tEqx2zwuq-gC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=history+of+argentina+wine+industry+missionaries&source=bl&ots=-4W6L0fLCv&sig=Y6wV24LoRHwUDn7CxzS9OtXnLBU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivh-SAqsHXAhXhs1QKHT7dCMoQ6AEIPzAD#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20argentina%20wine%20industry%20missionaries&f=false">Argentina</a>, <a href="http://www.chilean-wine.com/chilean-wine-history/">Chile</a> and <a href="https://www.sevenhill.com.au/the-jesuits">Australia</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monks in a cellar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJoseph_Haier_-_Monks_in_a_cellar_1873.jpg">Joseph Haier 1816-1891, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Godly men not only preserved and promulgated oenology, or the study of wines; they also advanced it. One of the pioneers in the “méthode champenoise,” or the “<a href="http://winefolly.com/review/how-sparkling-wine-is-made/">traditional method</a>” of making sparkling wine, was a Benedictine monk whose name now adorns one of the world’s finest champagnes: Dom Pérignon. According to a later legend, when he sampled his first batch in 1715, Pérignon <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=pIdGLlMTsucC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=%E2%80%9CBrothers,+come+quickly.+I+am+drinking+stars!%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=j1jFQNJvEF&sig=M4aqm9jJ7PTLFwEavwndflQ6DwU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjpyY2ruMHXAhVByVQKHV8RCt0Q6AEISjAM#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CBrothers%2C%20come%20quickly.%20I%20am%20drinking%20stars!%E2%80%9D&f=false">cried out to his fellow monks</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Brothers, come quickly. I am drinking stars!”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Monks and priests also found new uses for the grape. The Jesuits are credited with improving the process for making <a href="http://www.grappamontanaro.com/storia-della-grappa/?lang=en">grappa</a> in Italy and <a href="https://museodelpisco.org/all-about-pisco/">pisco</a> in South America, both of which are grape brandies.</p>
<h2>Beer in the cloister</h2>
<p>And although beer may have been invented by the ancient Babylonians, it was perfected by the <a href="https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/alcohol-in-the-middle-ages/#_ednref3">medieval monasteries</a> that gave us brewing as we know it today. The oldest drawings of a modern brewery are from the Monastery of Saint Gall in Switzerland. The plans, which date back to A.D. 820, show three breweries – one for guests of the monastery, one for pilgrims and the poor, and one for the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/20909447">monks</a> themselves.</p>
<p>One saint, Arnold of Soissons, who lived in the 11th century, has even been credited with inventing the <a href="http://allaboutbeer.com/article/beer-saints/">filtration</a> process. To this day and despite the proliferation of many outstanding microbreweries, the world’s finest beer is arguably still made within the cloister – specifically, within the cloister of a <a href="http://ithinkaboutbeer.com/2013/05/09/the-brewing-monks-a-brief-history-of-the-trappist-order-and-monastic-brewing/">Trappist monastery</a>.</p>
<h2>Liquors and liqueurs</h2>
<p>Equally impressive is the religious contribution to distilled spirits. Whiskey was invented by medieval <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=A4EvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8&dq=history+of+whiskey+irish+monks&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL94DAucHXAhVjxlQKHWdXAsQQ6AEIQDAE#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20whiskey%20irish%20monks&f=false">Irish monks</a>, who probably shared their knowledge with the Scots during their missions.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monk sneaking a drink.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMonk_sneaking_a_drink.jpg">Scanned from Den medeltida kokboken, Swedish translation of The Medieval Cookbook by Maggie Black, via Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.chartreuse.fr/en/produits/green-chartreuse/">Chartreuse</a> is widely considered the <a href="http://www.orangecoast.com/booze-blog/green-chartreuse-best-liqueur-ever/">world’s best liqueur</a> because of its extraordinary spectrum of distinct flavors and even medicinal benefits. Perfected by the Carthusian order almost 300 years ago, the recipe is known by only <a href="https://www.chartreuse.fr/en/produits/green-chartreuse/">two monks</a> at a time. The herbal liqueur Bénédictine D.O.M. is reputed to have been invented in 1510 by an Italian Benedictine named Dom Bernardo Vincelli to fortify and restore weary monks. And the cherry brandy known as Maraska liqueur was invented by Dominican apothecaries in the early 16th century.</p>
<p>Nor was ingenuity in alcohol a male-only domain. Carmelite sisters once produced an extract called “<a href="http://www.herbrally.com/monographs/lemon-balm/">Carmelite water</a>” that was used as a herbal tonic. The nuns no longer make this elixir, but another concoction of the convent survived and went on to become one of Mexico’s most popular holiday liqueurs – Rompope. </p>
<p>Made from vanilla, milk and eggs, Rompope was invented by Clarist nuns from the Spanish colonial city of Puebla, located southeast of Mexico City. According to one account, the nuns used egg whites to give the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=JqZkUC_7WQIC&pg=PT423&lpg=PT423&dq=ROMPOPE+nuns+convent+egg+whites+yolks&source=bl&ots=h2JgzxgkHB&sig=_nHVhycm68vYrgWLwNmFZALDVMQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwipiIfNvsHXAhVIrFQKHf_BDckQ6AEIPzAD#v=onepage&q=ROMPOPE%20nuns%20convent%20egg%20whites%20yolks&f=false">sacred art</a> in their chapel a protective coating. Not wishing the leftover yolks to go to waste, they developed the recipe for this festive refreshment.</p>
<h2>Health and community</h2>
<p>So why such an impressive record of alcoholic creativity among the religious? I believe there are two underlying reasons.</p>
<p>First, the conditions were right for it. Monastic communities and similar religious orders possessed all of the <a href="https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/alcohol-in-the-middle-ages/#_ednref3">qualities</a> necessary for producing fine alcoholic beverages. They had vast tracts of land for planting grapes or barley, a long institutional memory through which special knowledge could be handed down and perfected, a facility for teamwork and a commitment to excellence in even the smallest of chores as a means of glorifying God.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Historically, alcohol was seen to be promoting health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFritz_Wagner_Ein_guter_Schluck.jpg">Fritz Wagner (1896-1939) (Dorotheum) , via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, it is easy to forget in our current age that for much of human history, alcohol was instrumental in promoting <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14037.html">health</a>. Water sources often carried dangerous pathogens, and so small amounts of alcohol would be mixed with water to kill the germs therein.</p>
<p>Roman soldiers, for example, were given a daily <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=LfRiXN5hhCUC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=%22wine+per+day+to+soldiers%22&source=bl&ots=vArw70Tv2k&sig=ML-X9Cg_fJVq7ox571zHYABqLOw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj72ILdv8HXAhVLy1QKHePgCMkQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=%22wine%20per%20day%20to%20soldiers%22&f=false">allowance of wine</a>, not in order to get drunk but to purify whatever water they found on campaign. And two bishops, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=R9i5BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT527&dq=%22Arnulf+of+Metz%22+plague+beer&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwikmY-PwMHXAhUHi1QKHdB2CMsQ6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q=%22Arnulf%20of%20Metz%22%20plague%20beer&f=false">Saint Arnulf of Metz</a> and Saint <a href="https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/20/arnold-of-soissons-the-patron-saint-of-beer/">Arnold of Soissons</a>, are credited with saving hundreds from a plague because they admonished their flock to drink beer instead of water. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=A4EvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8&dq=history+of+whiskey+irish+monks&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL94DAucHXAhVjxlQKHWdXAsQQ6AEIQDAE#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20whiskey%20irish%20monks&f=false">Whiskey</a>, herbal liqueurs and even bitters were likewise invented for medicinal reasons. </p>
<p>And if beer can save souls from pestilence, no wonder the Church has a special blessing for it that <a href="http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/resources/books-1962/rituale-romanum/54-blessings-of-things-designated-for-ordinary-use.html">begins</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“O Lord, bless this creature beer, which by Your kindness and power has been produced from kernels of grain, and may it be a health-giving drink for mankind.”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Foley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
For those wondering whether it is sinful to drink, even moderately, a scholar goes into the history of alcohol and its distillation to show how early monks and priests contributed to it.
Michael Foley, Associate Professor of Patristics, Baylor University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.