Researchers Digitize 4,000-Year-Old Mesopotamian Beer Receipt Detailing 123 Liters Delivered

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen and the National Museum of Denmark have digitized and re-analyzed a clay tablet that records the delivery of 123 liters of beer over two days in ancient Mesopotamia. , and lists 16 liters of high-quality beer and 55 liters of ordinary beer on the first day, followed by 12 liters of high-quality beer and 40 liters of ordinary beer on the second day.

The provincial governor’s cylinder seal is impressed on the tablet, indicating receipt of the shipment.

The announcement was made in a University of Copenhagen news release in April as part of the joint “Hidden Treasures” project. The tablet had remained in the National Museum of Denmark’s archives and had not been studied in recent times before the digitization effort. ” He noted that beer receipts were common administrative documents.

“Beer was a central part of Mesopotamian culture from the invention of writing in the late 4th millennium BCE until the end of cuneiform culture,” Arbøll said. ” The receipt distinguishes between high-quality and ordinary beer. One liter equals just under three standard 12-ounce cans, so the two-day total exceeded 30 gallons.

Arbøll said early Mesopotamian beer was produced mainly from barley, though date syrup or emmer wheat could be added in some periods. The beverage “was probably not high in alcohol, though it was nutritious,” contained sediment, and was typically consumed through hollow reeds used as straws. NMC 7962 had previously been published by Danish Sumerologist Thorkild Jacobsen.

Researchers re-examined it during the current project. Mesopotamia was centered in parts of modern-day Iraq and Syria. Some attempts to reproduce the ancient beer have been made, at the University of Chicago, Arbøll said.