Remnants of 5,000-year-old tavern discovered in Iraq include an oven, refrigerator, benches for customers, and even an ancient beer recipe

• Archaeologists found the remains of a 5,000-year-old tavern in Iraq, CBS News reported.
• The site is known to be among the earliest urban centers of the Sumerian civilization.

Archaeologists have discovered a 5,000-year old tavern in Iraq, complete with a refrigerator, bowls of leftover food, and a recipe for beer.

A team of US and Italian archaeologists made the discovery at an archaeological site in southern Iraq at the location of the ancient city of Lagash — known to be one of the earliest urban centers of the Sumerian civilization, CBS News reported.

The dig was a collaboration between archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pisa. A synopsis of the excavation posted to the UPenn website details the remains of what archaeologists believe to be a temple and a tavern in the ancient city.

"To the east, the project exposed three levels of another building with a large oven, baked-brick basin, and many ceramic vats," reads the synopsis. "The excavators interpreted this structure as a brewery."

Archaeologists also found a recipe for ancient beer at the site, CBS News reported.

"We call it a tavern because beer is by far the most common drink, even more than water, for the Sumerians," project director Holly Pittman told AFP, per CBS News.

Pittman told AFP the archaeologists also found a refrigerator, as well as "hundreds of vessels ready to be served" and "benches where people would sit."

Using the samples from the dig taken in November, archaeologists hope to shine a light on the way people lived in Lagash.

"There is so much that we do not know about this early period of the emergence of cities and that is what we are investigating," Pittman said. "We hope to be able to characterize the neighborhoods and the kinds of occupation ... of the people that lived in this big city who were not the elite," she added.