Steady Supply Of Beer Kept Ancient Wari Empire Intact For 500 Years

[Judi Lynn]

21 April 2019, 12:12 pm EDT By Maui Hermitanio Tech Times

Brewing a steady supply of beer to serve during festivities could have helped the ancient Wari civilization's political stability in its 500 years of existence.

In their latest research that probed how beer is crucial to the longevity of an empire, a team of anthropologists from the Field Museum recreated ancient brewing techniques. They concluded that beer really helped form unity among the populations of the ancient civilization and the shared identity and cultural practices that help stabilize societies are still relevant up to today.

The Wari Empire And Beer Diplomacy
Over a thousand years ago, the Wari empire existed in Peru even before the Inca civilization. This empire lasted from 600AD to 1100AD and developed in the mountainous valley of Ayacucho in Central Peru that is largely influenced by the Tiwanaku culture of Bolivia. It is believed that the Wari state created its large sphere of power with the help of political force, and was probably the first centrally governed state of the Andes.

For several centuries, the Wari leaders and their rivals from the Tiwanaku empire gathered and held festivities together with the local communities. They drank vessels of the beer-like beverage called chicha de molle that was made from fermented corn and pepper berries.

More:
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/241949/20190421/steady-supply-of-beer-kept-ancient-wari-empire-intact-for-500-years.htm

Anthropology:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/12294655

Wonderful architectural images from the Wari/Huari empire in Ayacucho, Peru:

https://tinyurl.com/y36uremb

[JoeOtterbein]

1. Thanks Judi. I think I'll have another...

...beer!

[Judi Lynn]

2. If you lived in that area, you wouldn't want to have too many, and then get the idea

you'd like to go drop in and see some friends at Macchu Picchu!



You have to wonder how many people tripped and fell over the edge!

I'll bet the motto was "Don't drink and take even one step."

[JoeOtterbein]

3. Ha! Maybe with lots of practice walking home from the local

bar! Beautiful picture BTW! I wish I was there to give it a try! (sober as a judge, of course.)

[Judi Lynn]

6. I think it was a DU'er named LoneCoyote who posted a website with a 360 degree view of Macchu Picchu

So I went to see if I could find it, and saw there are several websites, and I can't remember which one, so I grabbed one, and there are definitely others, and probably different people in them, as they would be taken on different days at Macchu Picchu, and most likely there could be a better view taken by someone too, but this is the one I grabbed:

https://www.360cities.net/image/machu-picchu

I spent a ton of time examining the one the poster left years ago. What a place! Whoa!

Yes, you would want to visit the place in full control of yourself!

You'd want to be more sober than a Republican judge, however!

[JoeOtterbein]

10. I've worked in the "hospitality" industry for over 40 years and found very few people...

...drink more than judges. I have often wondered why. Stress of course. Maybe feeling they can "get away with it." Anyway, maybe we should just test them all with a walk on the trail in your Machu Picchu picture!

[Judi Lynn]

11. That point is wondrous to learn! It has to be their consciences are eating them alive! Wow.

It would be spectacular to turn a bunch of them loose up there to find their ways home!

No doubt some of the grazing llamas would be happy to help them out.

[JoeOtterbein]

13. Now that would be a great idea for a...

...TV reality show. Imagine the ratings!

[democratisphere]

4. Everyone knows things go better with Machu Picchu Lager.

500 years of Brewery Bliss.

[Judi Lynn]

7. You betcha! It's always good to have a nice flat place to do some serious drinking.

- click for image -

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4m5WeFhdBiaTR3ff52WG2wEQz3NpDm7lPS0VDfaxOUChNMBCa

- click for image -

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQyYVN41O6rLW3GejWnHGzCYTtSCNDuAbtN9shsx3CVdNwJmwV4





These poor souls are at Sacsayhuaman, Bolivia, pre-Inca ruins

[delisen]

5. or did it work to keep the population docile and short-lived

Vodka is partially responsible for the early deaths of Russian men. Putin's reaction: lowered the price of vodka.

[Judi Lynn]

8. He has always looked sardonic, and sadistic, hasn't he? It's easy to imagine him torturing people.

It is funny, however, to see how Trump cowers when he is with him.

I heard recently, again, that the rulers in Egypt offered mass quantities of beer to the people slaving away their lives on the pyramids.

Lowering the price of vodka could shorten lives rapidly for people who are already depressed. Not so charitable.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. There's reason to think that humans settled down and started agriculture

for beer, not bread.

Beer is incredibly easy to brew. Just put some grain and water aside for a bit and it will ferment. Voila! Beer! Bread is a lot more complicated. You have to grind the grain into flour. then you have to mix it with some other ingredients, the most important of which is yeast which doesn't exactly grow on trees. Then you have to knead it, let it rise, briefly knead it again, let it rise again, then bake it. The final outcome is well worth it, but it's not exactly obvious to the most casual observer.

Actually, there are all sorts of things, like baking bread, that are complex procedures that humans have figured out. Whenever I think of them I'm in total awe of the original humans that figure them out. Had it been left up to me, we'd still be crouched at the bottoms of trees, plucking ants from anthills to eat.

Instead, I get to live in a world where I have beer and bread and Netflix!

[Judi Lynn]

12. Maybe the beer came before the bread, to help them cope with the shame of eating a lot of ants.

Great post!

[Judi Lynn]

14. AN EMPIRE BUILT ON BEER

APRIL 27, 2019 | KIRSTY VITARELLI
AN EMPIRE BUILT ON BEER

Archeologists have been researching how an ancient Peruvian empire was so successful that it lasted for centuries — and it turns out the answer is… beer.

With his team at the Field Museum in Chicago, curator Ryan Williams discovered a site at Cerro Baúl in the mountains of southern Peru that once served as a kind of microbrewery for the Wari civilization. Predecessors to the Incas, the Wari flourished from roughly 600 AD to 1,000.

The Field Museum team analyzed fragments of pots and discovered that the Wari brewed beer with ingredients including a local drought-resistant berry. Use of this berry meant the beer could be produced and enjoyed even in the leanest of seasons.

The ‘chicha’ beer — light in alcohol content and sour in taste — had a shelf life of only a week at most, so it had to be drunk where it was made.

More:
https://whowhatwhy.org/2019/04/27/an-empire-built-on-beer/