History
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People around the world, since ancient times, have been drinking alcoholic beverages. Reasons for drinking alcoholic beverages vary and include:
- part of a standard diet
- medical purposes
- relaxant effects
- euphoric effects
- recreational purposes
- artistic inspiration
- putative aphrodisiac effects
Examination and analysis of ancient pottery jars from the neolithic village of Jiahu in Henan province in northern China revealed residue left behind by the alcoholic beverages they once contained. According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, chemical analysis of the residue confirmed that a fermented drink made from fruit, rice, and honey was being produced in 7000–6600 BCE. The results of this analysis was published in December 2004. This drink, as of now, precedes the evidence of grape wine from the Middle East by more than 500 years. Winemaking first appears dating from 6000 BCE in Georgia. Evidence of alcoholic beverages has also been found dating from 3150 BCE in ancient Egypt, 3000 BCE in Babylon, 2000 BCE in pre-Hispanic Mexico, and 1500 BC in Sudan. Distilled alcoholic beverages were first recorded in Europe in the mid-12th century. By the early 14th century, they had spread throughout the European continent.
Read more about this topic: Alcoholic Beverage
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Books of natural history aim commonly to be hasty schedules, or inventories of God’s property, by some clerk. They do not in the least teach the divine view of nature, but the popular view, or rather the popular method of studying nature, and make haste to conduct the persevering pupil only into that dilemma where the professors always dwell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)