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<ul><li>A joint US-Egypt discovery team has found a beer factory in ruins of <keyword id="2062831" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ancient-egypt">ancient Egypt</keyword> going back 5,000 years.</li><li>According to New York University’s Mathew Adams, this factory was capable of producing 22,400 liters of beer at a time — that’s nearly 50,000 pints.</li><li>For workers, like the ones who built the pyramids of Giza, 10 pints of beer were provided as a daily ration to get them through the day. Even more was consumed during festivities and special occasions.</li></ul>Egyptians loved their beer. Not just for drinking, but for sacrificial rites. According to historians, Egyptians were the <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/article/1033/beer-in-ancient-egypt/">first civilisation</a> to perfect the art of brewing beer. And now, new evidence shows that Egypt may also be home to the world’s oldest mass production <keyword id="6643600" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="brewery">brewery</keyword> in the world.<br /><br />A huge beer factory has been found in an ancient burial ground in North Abydos — the desert area west of the Nile and around 450 kilometers south of Cairo asper Egypt's <a href="https://twitter.com/TourismandAntiq/status/1360618222358257669">Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.</a><br /><br /><div type="image" title="Screenshot (583)_edited" msid="80920341" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Abydos is one of oldest cities of ancient Egypt, located around 11 kilometres from the Nile&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />It dates back at least 5,000 years to the days of King Narmer who ruled between 3150 BC to 2613 BC. The brewery could have been producing as much as 22,400 liters of beer at a time, according to Matthew Adams of New York University — one of the researchers who led the joint Egypt-US discovery team. <br /><br />The factory has eight units. Each unit is around 20 meters long and 2.5 meters wide. Moreover, each of these units is lined with some 40 earthen wares pots each laid out in two rows. <br /><br />And, these pots are where the magic happened. A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-52877-0">combination of grains and water</a> were mixed and added to the pots to produce beer. <br /><br /><div type="image" title="brewery2_edited" msid="80920358" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Pots used to brew beer in ancient Egypt&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br /><strong>Beer wasn’t just a drink — it was food<br /></strong>Beer was the result of the agricultural revolution. Fermentation was an accidental by-product of gathering wild grain. Beer, in itself, wasn’t something that was invented but ‘discovered’, according to historians. <br /><br />However, the manufacturing of beer was an active choice. And, the Egyptians loved to consume it in huge volumes. Back in the 1900s, British archaeologists proposed that such a factory probably existed, but they were unable to determine its location at the time.<br /><div type="image" title="brewery1_edited" msid="80920397" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Pots used to brew beer at the world&amp;#39;s oldest beer factory discovered in Egypt&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />The reason for their hypothesis was that in ancient Egypt, beer was such an integral part of daily life that it was essentially treated as a type of food. <br /><br />For workers, like the ones who built the pyramids of Giza, beer was a necessity. Each person was provided with a daily ration of over 10 pints. And, this beer was not drunk out of mugs but <a href="https://blog.britishmuseum.org/a-sip-of-history-ancient-egyptian-beer/">using a straw</a> with holes or a filter to leave out any sediments that collected in the pot.<br /><br />Evidence of pottery being used to brew beer was <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/20/world/meast/egypt-ancient-beer-brewer-tomb/index.html">first discovered</a> in Tel Aviv by the Israel Antiquities Authority, six years ago.<br /><br />The 5,000-year old huge beer factory, however, was discovered in Abydos, which is the necropolis of ancient Egypt filled with ancient monuments that honor Osiris — believed to be the god of the underworld. Just as other faiths have Hades, Acheron or Yamraja — Osiris is responsible for judging souls in the afterlife.<br /><br />But he wasn’t the only one associated with beer. Its divine status extended to many other gods and goddesses like Hathor — the goddess of love, dance and beauty — also known as ‘The Lady of Drunkenness’.<br /><br /><div type="javascript" title="Vimeo" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/278672267">Drain Egypt&#039;s Lost Wonders promo</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/msptv">msptv</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>]]></cdata></div><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/this-startup-helps-you-watch-shows-shop-online-and-access-the-internet-even-without-a-data-connection/articleshow/80918896.cms">This startup helps you watch shows, shop online and access the internet even without a data connection</a><br /><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/policy/news/gst-council-may-consider-merging-the-12-and-18-tax-slab-in-the-next-meeting-says-finance-minister-nirmala-sitharaman/articleshow/80876459.cms"><strong>GST Council may consider merging the 12% and 18% tax slab in the next meeting, says Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman</strong></a><br />

Drink like an Egyptian: Historians discover the world’s oldest beer factory in Egypt

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/napoleon-bonaparte-best-military-commanders-of-all-time-2017-11">Napoleon Bonaparte</a> brought engineers, architects, and scientists when he invaded Egypt.</li><li>In three stages, these "savants" meticulously illustrated the ruins of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/misconceptions-about-ancient-egyptians-mummies-cleopatra-that-are-wrong-experts-12">ancient Egypt</a>.</li></ul><p><a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/napoleon-invasion-russia-moscow-1812-2023-11"><u>General Napoleon Bonaparte</u></a> is remembered as a crusader, tyrant, and initiator of a series of wars.</p><p>But one of his lesser-known offenses — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/napoleon-egypt-invasion-scientific-breakthroughs-2023-11">abandoning a crew of scholars and scientists in Egypt</a> — led to the unexpected byproduct of formal archaeology as we know it today.</p><p>When the French general invaded Egypt in 1798 — an event depicted somewhat <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/historians-absolutely-hate-ridley-scott-napoleon-movie-2023-11">ahistorically in the Ridley Scott film "Napoleon"</a> — he brought along more than 150 engineers, mathematicians, and naturalists.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/napoleon-invasion-russia-moscow-1812-2023-11">Napoleon</a> wanted these "savants," as scientists were called at the time, to focus on projects that could benefit France, such as purifying water from the Nile River, hops-free beer brewing, and better bread ovens.</p><p>Just a year later, Napoleon secretly returned to France to stage a coup and seize power, leaving his savant squad and 30,000 troops behind. They stayed until defeat forced them to retreat in 1801.</p><p>While the soldiers fought, some of the savants got busy conducting archaeological surveys.</p><h2><strong>The ruins of Upper Egypt wowed one of Napoleon's first savants</strong></h2><div type="image" title="egypt coffin mummy" height="1482" width="2200" msid="107273503" hostid="261" sizebytes="171190"></div><p>"Very few of the scholars were antiquarians, those quintessentially eighteenth-century characters, mostly wealthy, who filled their curiosity cabinets with strange old objects picked up on their travels, barely understanding what they had," Nina Burleigh writes in her book, "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mirage/n--z6iyUooUC?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;bsq=original">Mirage</a>," about Napoleon's scientists in Egypt. "Collecting old objects without understanding their use or meaning was a pastime for gentlemen, not a scientific undertaking."</p><p>In short, these men were approaching the exploration of Egypt with a different attitude that was more scientific.</p><p>At the time, many Europeans had heard of the Great Pyramids or the Sphinx, but the <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-ancient-historical-sites-before-and-after-excavation-2023-8"><u>ancient temples and monuments</u></a> of Upper Egypt were unknown.</p><p>Dominique-Vivant Denon, an artist and writer, accompanied Napoleon's soldiers up the Nile. He wrote about rounding a river bend to suddenly see the ancient temples of Karnak and Luxor rising from the ruins of Thebes.</p><p>"The whole army, suddenly and with one accord, stood in amazement... and clapped their hands with delight," he wrote, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/issue/sa/1994/09-01/">Scientific American</a>.</p><div type="image" title="Drawing of the Edfu Temple in Egypt by Vivant Denon showing cracks in the structure and larger towers in the background" height="1601" width="3239" msid="107273505" hostid="261" sizebytes="550012"></div><p>Denon<strong> </strong>returned to France with Napoleon and quickly published a book with his descriptions and drawings, "Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt."</p><p>That was not enough for Denon, though, who pushed for sending more savants to the Nile to document its monuments in greater detail.</p><p>Napoleon approved, and two fresh commissions of savants arrived in Egypt on an archaeological mission in September 1799.</p><h2>Napoleon's savants published a giant encyclopedia of Egypt</h2><p>This crew of young <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" href="https://archive.archaeology.org/9905/abstracts/egypt.html"><u>architects and engineers</u></a> made careful drawings and measurements of a large number of ancient structures. Their depictions were so faithful that they preserved inscriptions that have since disappeared, according to Scientific American.</p><p>All these surveys were published in "La Description de l'Egypte," a multi-volume tome that included maps, hundreds of copper engravings, and essays describing what they'd learned about Egypt.</p><p>It divided Egypt into ancient and modern times, and launched the modern vision of ancient Egypt as we know it today.</p><p>"La Description de l'Egypte" was extremely popular. The structures, symbols, and images of ancient Egypt became <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-9054-0&amp;sa=D&amp;source=docs&amp;ust=1706317695608651&amp;usg=AOvVaw0p4Qi9JWhWWUVqADsqMn0s">fashionable</a> features of European art and architecture.</p><h2>Europe's Egypt obsession led to its first museums of archaeology</h2><div type="image" title="A picture shows the inside of a sarcophagus, in which is placed an ancient Egyptian mummy in good state of conservation , under an ornate cartonnage and a mask representing the deceased's face." height="593" width="1055" msid="107273508" hostid="261" sizebytes="51838"></div><p>Goaded on by Napoleon's savant expeditions, the European fascination with ancient Egypt gave rise to archaeological museums in Europe, beginning with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.louvre.fr/en/explore/the-palace/the-guardian-of-egyptian-art">Louvre</a> opening the first Egyptian museum in 1827.</p><p>Eventually, this fascination led to the field of Egyptology, which has been a heavy influence in modern archaeology.</p><p>"Napoleon's scholars and engineers are remembered most as men who helped found archaeology as a science," Burleigh writes.</p>

Napoleon stranded a bunch of scientists in Egypt and now we have modern archaeology

<ul class="summary-list"><li>When Napoleon invaded Egypt, he brought dozens of scientists with him.</li><li>Astronomers, mathematicians, and naturalists spent three years studying the country.</li></ul><p>When <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/napoleon-invasion-russia-moscow-1812-2023-11">General Napoleon Bonaparte</a> invaded Egypt in July 1798, he didn't just bring tens of thousands of soldiers, he also recruited over 150 scientists, known as savants, to accompany him.</p><p>They arrived "with the aim of both study and exploitation," according to an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003262312-4/napoleon-savants-description-de-%C3%A9gypte-andrew-shortland"><u>archaeologist</u></a>.</p><p>A little over a month later, on August 23, 1798, the scientific society called the Institut d'Égypte, which still exists today, held its first meeting in a lavish palace in Cairo and appointed Napoleon as its first <a target="_blank" href="https://archive.archaeology.org/9905/abstracts/egypt.html"><u>vice president</u></a>.</p><p>Napoleon wanted to use the country's natural resources, history, and culture for the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-studied-napoleon-tesla-spacex-factory-battlefield-biographer-2023-8">benefit of France</a>. He urged the savants to focus on projects, like improving bread ovens, purifying the Nile's water, and brewing beer without hops.</p><p>The scientists' tasks were made more difficult because the ship carrying much of their surveying and scientific equipment had <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/986871"><u>sunk</u></a>. Then, after a series of defeats in Egypt, Napoleon returned to France in 1799 and left many of the scientists stranded.</p><p>Despite setbacks, the engineers, mathematicians, naturalists, and others spent nearly three years surveying, documenting, and collecting everything from antiquities to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/curse-tutankhamun-king-tut-pharoah-mummy-tomb-cause-fungi-2023-8">mummified remains</a> to animals largely unknown to the West.</p><p>Their work led to some novel discoveries, helped formalize sciences like archaeology<em>,</em> and spurred an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/3000-year-old-ancient-city-discovered-egypt-lost-golden-city-2021-4">infatuation with Egypt</a> that's continued ever since.</p><h2>1. The discovery that chemical reactions are reversible</h2><p>Before chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet's realization, the concept that chemical reactions could be reversible wasn't universally accepted.</p><p>However, Berthollet found strong evidence to support the concept while studying the salt deposits in the lakes of the Natron Valley.</p><p>Limestone in the lakes was covered in a naturally occurring salt called natron, which Egyptians used to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/egypt-mummies-did-not-pull-brain-through-nose-2022-12">preserve mummified bodies</a> because it absorbed moisture and dissolved fat.</p><div type="image" title="Crumbling Graeco-Roman remains at Wadi Natron, with only a single wall standing made of tan bricks" height="1682" width="1750" msid="105679568" hostid="261" sizebytes="473714"></div><p>Berthollet observed that the limestone, which contained <a target="_blank" href="https://napoleon.lindahall.org/soda_lakes.shtml"><u>calcium carbonate</u></a>, chemically reacted with salt, aka sodium chloride, to produce natron, made of sodium carbonate.</p><p>In <a target="_blank" href="https://napoleon.lindahall.org/soda_lakes.shtml"><u>laboratory conditions</u></a>, chemists knew that the exact opposite reaction was possible, which led Berthollet to reasonably conclude that chemical reactions were reversible and that heat and different amounts of a substance could determine which way the reaction went.</p><h2>2. A more formal approach to archaeology</h2><p>In Napoleon's time, archaeology wasn't yet a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.thoughtco.com/the-first-archaeologists-167134"><u>formal science</u></a>. Most savants had little experience with artifacts. Sand still buried some temples that had yet to be excavated.</p><p>Dominique-Vivant Denon, an artist and writer, was awed by the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-ancient-historical-sites-before-and-after-excavation-2023-8">ancient monuments</a> he saw. He went back to France with Napoleon and quickly published a book with his descriptions and drawings, "Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt."</p><p>At the time of Napoleon's invasion, travelers had long known of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/archaeologists-mummy-golden-tongue-alexandria-egypt-2021-2">Alexandria</a>, Cairo, and other parts of Lower Egypt. The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/egypt-unveils-restaurant-and-electric-bus-fleet-at-the-great-pyramids-to-lure-tourists-2020-10">Great Pyramids</a> and Sphinx were famous. But Upper Egypt wasn't as well known.</p><p>That changed when the savants arrived. "The whole army, suddenly and with one accord, stood in amazement...and clapped their hands with delight," <a target="_blank" href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-scientific-importance-of-napole/">Denon later wrote</a>.</p><div type="image" title="Drawing of the Edfu Temple in Egypt by Vivant Denon showing cracks in the structure and larger towers in the background" height="1601" width="3239" msid="105679569" hostid="261" sizebytes="550012"></div><p>His drawings and descriptions of the temples and ruins at Thebes, Esna, Edfu, and Karnak proved immensely popular. Many were depicted in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-9054-0"><u>fashionable paintings</u></a> and inspired decor trends.</p><p>Since he'd had to capture everything in <a target="_blank" href="https://archive.archaeology.org/9905/abstracts/egypt.html"><u>short bursts of time</u></a>, Denon had pushed for two commissions of savants to return and better document <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/egypt-best-tourist-sites-luxor-ancient-city-of-thebes-photos-2019-4">the monuments</a>.</p><p>Napoleon's <a target="_blank" href="https://archive.archaeology.org/9905/abstracts/egypt.html"><u>architects and engineers</u></a> made careful drawings and took measurements of a large number of monuments. Others attempted to measure the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pyramid-hidden-rooms-lidar-egypt-sahure-2023-10">pyramids</a>. (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/historians-absolutely-hate-ridley-scott-napoleon-movie-2023-11">Napoleon never shot</a> them with cannons, in case you were wondering.)</p><h2>3. Savigny discovered a new way to classify insects</h2><p>When he was back in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/american-moved-to-paris-healthcare-rent-affordability-2023-9">France</a>, Jules-César Savigny needed to organize the 1,500 species of insects he'd brought back. There didn't yet exist a systematic way to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/bees-officially-type-of-fish-california-judges-ruling-endangered-species-2022-6">distinguish one species</a> of moth or butterfly from another. So Savigny invented one.</p><p>It turned out, the mouth parts had <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/986871"><u>sufficient</u></a> differences to allow Savigny to separate the bugs into species. He pored over the tiny jaws of the insects. He drew over 1,000 images of specimens, some of which were only a centimeter long.</p><p>Just 21 and a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/growing-food-on-mars-like-the-martian-2015-9">botanist</a> by training when he arrived in Egypt, Savigny collected invertebrates like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/forty-six-thousand-year-old-worm-found-siberian-permafrost-brought-back-to-life-2023-7">worms</a>, bees, spiders, snails, and flies. He also took specimens of starfish, coral, and sea urchins.</p><div type="image" title="A number of drawings of arachnids of different types with different parts drawn separately, like eyes and jaws" height="1809" width="2000" msid="105679571" hostid="261" sizebytes="188552"></div><p>Savigny applied the same rigor to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cruise-passenger-said-spider-laid-eggs-in-toe-experts-unlikely-2023-11">arachnids</a>, worms, and other animals that lacked backbones. Some of his classification methods are <a target="_blank" href="https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1171&amp;context=gvjh"><u>still in use</u></a> today.</p><h2>4. The discovery of a new species of crocodile that took 200 years to confirm</h2><p>Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire was convinced there were two species of crocodiles in the Nile.</p><p>Like Savigny, Geoffroy was a prolific collector. While in Egypt, he studied bats, mongooses, tortoises, and more.</p><p>One reason Geoffroy was able to dissect and stuff so many specimens was he had purchased an 11-year-old enslaved boy, whom he trained to help with his work.</p><p>Geoffroy dissected so many different kinds of animals that he started to see patterns between even very different species. It led to his theory of a "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160932707000804"><u>unity of plan</u></a>" or "unity of composition" a kind of quasi-evolutionary idea that Charles Darwin would reference decades later.</p><p>Geoffroy's <a target="_blank" href="https://arcade.stanford.edu/rofl/ibis-and-crocodile-napoleon%E2%80%99s-egyptian-campaign-and-evolutionary-theory-france-1801%E2%80%931835"><u>theories</u></a> often irritated his fellow naturalists. That includes when he attempted to demonstrate a mummified crocodile he'd taken from Egypt represented a separate species.</p><div type="image" title="A drawing of two crocodiles, one full size and smaller one in front" height="1000" width="3501" msid="105679573" hostid="261" sizebytes="1424952"></div><p>Its jaw was completely different from the Nile crocodile, Geoffroy said. Plus, it was less aggressive. One had been on display in Paris. "It took pleasure in being patted; and anyone might, without the least danger, open its mouth, and place his hand between its teeth," <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/New_Monthly_Magazine_and_Humorist/R8g2AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=Geoffroy+Saint-Hilaire+crocodile+suchus&amp;pg=PA158&amp;printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&amp;q=Geoffroy%20Saint-Hilaire%20crocodile%20suchus&amp;f=false"><u>according</u></a> to one account.</p><p>His colleagues said he was wrong about there being a separate species of crocodile. However, over 200 years later, biologist Evon Hekkala and a team of researchers <a target="_blank" href="https://news.fordham.edu/science/new-croc-discovered-by-fordham-biologist/"><u>analyzed the DNA of modern crocodiles</u></a> and some of Geoffroy's mummies to confirm his suspicions, and show two separate species swam in the Nile: Crocodylus niloticus and Crocodylus suchus.</p><h2>5. The advent of ophthalmology</h2><div type="image" title="An engraving of the house of Osman Bey with elaborate columns, several levels, a brick wall, and people and a camel and horses in the courtyard" height="1500" width="2114" msid="105679574" hostid="261" sizebytes="595250"></div><p>The French physicians who accompanied Napoleon encountered unfamiliar diseases in Egpyt. One disease they brought back with them to Europe was something they called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/cbmh.27.2.321"><u>Egyptian ophthalmia</u></a>, which is now known as trachoma and can cause itchy, swollen eyes and lead to blindness.</p><p>It became so prevalent that physicians all over Europe started studying the disease. Geoffroy, who contracted it, was "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160932707000804"><u>totally blind" for weeks,</u></a> he wrote.</p><p>Up to that point, ophthalmology wasn't a formalized branch of scientific research, but the race to find the origin of this disease laid the groundwork for its creation.</p><p>Eventually, British physician <a target="_blank" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6359513/"><u>John Vetch</u></a> realized the pus from the infected eye could spread the disease. Knowing it was contagious, Vetch developed methods of prevention and treatment that are considered milestones in the history of ophthalmology.</p><h2>6. The Rosetta Stone helped Champollion discover how to decipher hieroglyphs</h2><p>For centuries, no one could read hieroglyphs, the pictorial writing that covered many Egyptian monuments. </p><p>When the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/disputed-ancient-artifacts-2011-7">French found the Rosetta Stone</a> during their invasion, they knew it could serve as a kind of translation key.</p><p>Deciphering hieroglyphs would allow scholars to read the writing on scores of other Ancient Egyptian texts and monuments.</p><p>In 1801, the British were negotiating for France's surrender. One stipulation was that the British would take the <a target="_blank" href="https://archive.archaeology.org/9905/abstracts/egypt.html"><u>antiquities and the savants' collections</u></a>, which included the Rosetta Stone.</p><p>Geoffroy <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mirage/n--z6iyUooUC?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=mirage+napoleon%27s+scientists+and+the+unveiling+of+egypt&amp;printsec=frontcover">told the British</a> that the savants would "destroy our property, we will disperse it in the Libyan sands, or we will throw it into the sea" before they handed it over. They were allowed to keep their notes and collections.</p><div type="image" title="A man and woman in 1930s clothing stand in front of and behind the Rosetta Stone" height="1500" width="1914" msid="105679576" hostid="261" sizebytes="322900"></div><p>Three texts were inscribed on the stone, in Egyptian hieroglyphs, an Egyptian cursive script derived from hieroglyphs, and Ancient Greek. Since the three were identical, the Greek writing could help researchers decipher the hieroglyphs.</p><p>It took two decades for French scholar Jean-François Champollion to translate them. Champollion made use of a <a target="_blank" href="https://napoleon.lindahall.org/rosetta_stone.shtml"><u>copy</u></a> the French savants had taken of the slab and published.</p><p>The Rosetta Stone is currently in the British Museum. Egypt has been trying to get it back, calling it a "spoil of war."</p><h2>7. The<em> </em>invention of an engraving machine that sped up the printing process</h2><p>When the savants returned to France, many worked on compiling the multi-volume book "Description de l'Égypte," which amounted to 7,000 pages encompassing what they'd seen and studied in Egypt.</p><p>To save some of the laborious work of engraving, engineer Nicolas-Jacques Conté created a <a target="_blank" href="https://napoleon.lindahall.org/engraving.shtml"><u>machine</u></a> that automated part of the process.</p><p>To print the hundreds of illustrations, engravers first had to transfer them to <a target="_blank" href="https://archive.archaeology.org/9905/abstracts/egypt.html"><u>copper plates</u></a>.</p><div type="image" title="A drawing of a domed mosque and tall tower in Cairo circa 1798" height="1500" width="2115" msid="105679580" hostid="261" sizebytes="507550"></div><p>For plates with monuments, Conté's machine could <a target="_blank" href="https://archive.archaeology.org/9905/abstracts/egypt.html"><u>engrave the sky</u></a> in the background. The engraver could program it to create clouds as well.</p><p>What originally would've taken six to eight months could be completed in just a few days.</p><p>It was still a massive undertaking and considered to be the most ambitious work of France in the early 19th Century. The first volume wasn't printed until <a target="_blank" href="https://academic.oup.com/oaj/article/39/2/243/2223028"><u>1809</u></a>. The final volume came out in the late 1820s, nearly a decade after <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/napoleon/napoleon-and-josephine/who-was-napoleon.html"><u>Napoloen's death</u></a>.</p>

7 scientific breakthroughs that resulted from Napoleon's invasion of Egypt

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy Carlsberg</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>For a long part of humanity's history, beer was more than an after-work or weekend beverage. In many years and in many cultures, going <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-beer-archaeologist-17016372/?all">back to at least the construction of the pyramids</a> of Egypt, daily rations of beer helped fuel workers throughout their days.</p><p>More recently, factory workers used those malted rations to get through their labor. </p><p>And while the taste and alcohol content of many of these beers varied greatly, it turns out that by the end of the 19th century, at least some factory workers were downing a brew that would still be considered surprisingly tasty by today's standards.</p><p>We know this because near the end of the 2016, Business Insider had the chance to visit <a href="http://brooklynbrewery.com/">Brooklyn Brewery</a> for an event hosted with the Danish brewery <a href="http://www.carlsberg.com/">Carlsberg</a> to try a beer made with 133-year-old yeast that had been extracted from one of the first bottles of lager ever brewed with purified lager yeast.</p><p>This wasn't just a copy of a beer dating back to those days, it actually used an ancient ingredient. That still-living yeast was taken from one of those more than 100-year-old bottles and was used to create a fresh batch of beer according to the original specifications of 19th century brewers: the <a href="http://www.carlsberg.com/#!rebrew%7Crebrew/6868-the-carlsberg-laboratorys-140th-anniversary">Carlsberg Rebrew</a>.</p><p>A dark lager with a rich brown color and a taste that resembles a good bread, complex without being too heavy or malty, the Rebrew was more interesting and flavorful than many modern lagers.</p><p>"Elegant rather than dense, at 5.8% abv it's in the style of a Munich dark lager, the style of the day, the dark color being driven by the specially kilned malts," Susanna Forbes writes, <a href="http://imbibe.com/news-articles/beers/carlsberg-re-brew-a-taste-of-history/">describing the same beer for Imbibe Magazine</a>. "The flavors of rich toffee are accompanied by some residual sweetness."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Kevin Loria/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">Carlsberg's Bjarke Bundgaard showed this copy of the 19th century brewing records that were used to create the Rebrew.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Perhaps most importantly, it's a very drinkable brew - essential since factory workers at the end of the 1800s drank quite a lot of it.</p><p>Every worker got four liters of beer as their daily ration at the time, according to Bjarke Bundgaard, a beer historian for Carlsberg, the Danish brewery behind Rebrew.</p><p>"People drank quite a lot then," he tells Business Insider. Though, he says those brews probably had significantly lower alcohol content.</p><h2>Why the precious ingredient in Rebrew is so special</h2><p>If there's a magic ingredient in beer, it's yeast.</p><p>It's the tiny living organism that takes the grain, hops, and water you have beforehand and converts that mixture into the delightful beverage that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-history-of-beer-is-the-history-of-civilization-2016-9">human civilization has celebrated for thousands of years</a>.</p><p>But it was only in the 19th century, relatively recently in the history of beer, that scientists isolated yeast itself, understanding the full role that these tiny creatures played.</p><p>Different types of yeast make different beers. While some produce consistent and predictable results, others can be incredibly unpredictable.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Kevin Loria/Business Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In the latter half of the 19th century, a number of scientists - pioneers of microbiology - were starting to crack the mysteries of fermention, realizing that yeast was responsible for the seemingly magical transformation of water into beer. Louis Pasteur was one of those researchers and is frequently credited with revealing many of the mysteries of fermentation, but it was in 1883 that <a href="http://www.carlsberggroup.com/Company/heritage/Historyofscientificachievements/Pages/Pasteur.aspx">Emil Christian Hansen</a>, a researcher at the <a href="http://www.carlsberggroup.com/COMPANY/RESEARCH/Pages/CarlsbergResearchLaboratory.aspx">Carlsberg Laboratory</a> (Carlsberg conducts scientific research alongside their beer-making operation), actually managed to isolate the yeast that was considered the key to lager production.</p><p>Lager had skyrocketed in popularity at the time. But many batches of the cold-fermenting beer would spoil, contaminated by wild yeast. In order to prevent that spoilage, researchers realized they'd have to identify the species that made the perfect lager, using that and only that for fermentation. That was the inspiration for Hansen's work, and after the discovery, the brewery reportedly shared that special lager yeast with the rest of the industry.</p><p>There are different varieties of yeast that can be used for lager, but that original species, <em>Saccharomyces pastorianus</em>, was the main one that most future lagers would use. And according to scientists at Carlsberg, the genetic sequence of the specimen they took from those old bottles for the Rebrew project is essentially a perfect match for the original samples in their gene bank.</p><p><em>S. pastorianus</em> is the name for that yeast that has won precedence today, a name in honor of Pasteur. But Hansen had called the yeast by another name, one that was considered a synonym for its current moniker for some time, <em>Saccharomyces carlsbergensis</em>.</p><p>And at Brooklyn Brewery, where Business Insider had the chance to taste the Rebrew, brewmaster Garrett Oliver claimed that some circles still go by that name.</p><p>"We still refer to lager yeast as <em>carlbergensis</em>," said Oliver.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drinking-president-obama-beers-white-house2016-10">Obama's former personal chef reveals what it's like to have a drink with the president</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="g5N2k1dTpbqGHAWRP2frbDM_g03Mu_ud" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Lager made with the 133-year-old yeast that forever changed beer is surprisingly tasty

<h2></h2><ul class="summary-list"><li>Thanksgiving is known as a time to be grateful.</li><li>But it's built on the violent relationship between American colonists and Native Americans.</li></ul><p>Think about your favorite holiday — do you know the story behind it? Even if it's celebrated with parades, barbecues, and gifts, it may have a surprisingly dark history.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/labor-day-history-2017-8">Labor Day</a>, for example, is celebrated with a day off work and a final barbecue before the end of summer, but it was created in 1894 after a bloody strike. And while <a href="https://www.insider.com/what-is-purim-jewish-holiday-how-to-celebrate">Purim is celebrated with costumes and booze</a>, really, it's celebrating narrowly avoided mass murder.</p><p>Keep scrolling to learn about the dark and potentially unhappy origin stories of some of your favorite holidays.</p><h2>The history of Thanksgiving is much more complicated than many people were taught</h2><div type="image" title="A group of school kids gather at the statue of Massasoit, &quot;Great Sachem of the Wampanoag's,&quot; on the hill overlooking Plymouth Rock and the harbor." height="1512" width="2016" msid="79432322" hostid="261"></div><p>Almost every American student learns the story of the original Thanksgiving in school: In 1621, the new American colonists were struggling to survive in the harsh weather when the Native Americans helped out and shared food out of the kindness of their hearts.</p><p>But the darkness of the holiday stems from two things.</p><p>First, things were <em>truly </em>harrowing for the new "Americans." They were suffering from exposure, scurvy, and outbreaks of contagious diseases.</p><p>Second, the way students are taught about the holiday makes it seem like the colonists and the indigenous people had a healthy, mutually beneficial relationship — <a href="https://www.insider.com/history-of-thanksgiving-2017-11">that wasn't the case</a>. In fact, the two became embroiled in a devastating, bloody war just a generation after the famous feast.</p><p>To this day, people are so upset about the holiday and the way it is portrayed that protesters congregate every year on Thanksgiving, and some say it should be canceled for good, and have taken to calling it a "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/thanksgiving-is-national-day-of-mourning-for-some-indigenous-americans-2022-11">National Day of Mourning</a>."</p><h2>Labor Day was created after a bloody strike led to dozens of deaths and millions of dollars in damage</h2><div type="image" title="child labor LOC" height="600" width="800" msid="77981841" hostid="261"></div><p>Labor Day was recognized as a national holiday in 1894. It honors the workers of America, and all the contributions they've made to society, as well as all of their sacrifices. But today, it's best known as a three-day weekend that signifies the end of summer and <a href="https://www.insider.com/why-you-should-not-wear-white-after-labor-day-2017-9">wearing white</a>.</p><p>It was recognized as a holiday during one of the darkest chapters in American history for laborers. The average American worker at the time was working 12-hour days for seven days a week, in unsanitary and dangerous conditions that included poor ventilation and lack of access to bathrooms. There were also little-to-no restrictions on child labor.</p><p>The conditions gave rise to more vocal labor unions, whose members would organize rallies to call for better pay and hours.</p><p>On September 5, 1882, in New York City, 10,000 workers took the day off unpaid to march through the streets.</p><p>Labor Day was established after <a href="https://www.insider.com/labor-day-history-2017-8">the American Railroad Union</a> organized a nationwide boycott of Pullman railway cars, derailing both shipping and passenger travel across America. The strike resulted in riots in which dozens of people died and millions of dollars of damage was inflicted.</p><p>To restore the relationship between the government and workers, Labor Day was created.</p><h2>Purim commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from mass murder </h2><div type="image" title="purim" height="2270" width="3027" msid="77981843" hostid="261"></div><p>Purim is <a href="https://www.insider.com/what-is-purim-jewish-holiday-how-to-celebrate">a biblical Jewish holiday</a> that is today celebrated by dressing up in costumes (much like Halloween), drinking wine, and eating triangle-shaped cookies called <a href="https://www.insider.com/best-food-israel-2017-3#hamantaschen-17">hamantaschen</a>.</p><p>But the backstory is dark. Purim, which means "lots" (as in lottery) in ancient Persian, has been celebrated as early as 124 BCE.</p><p>The story goes that King Achashverosh of Persia wanted his wife Vashti to show off her beauty to everyone in the kingdom. When she refused, he decided to find a new wife by holding a beauty contest. Esther, a Jewish orphan raised by her uncle Mordechai, became the new Queen of Persia.</p><p>At around the same time, one of the king's advisers, Haman, became power hungry, demanding that everyone bow down to him. When Mordechai refused, claiming that, as a Jew, he would bow to no one, Haman decided to kill all Jews in the kingdom, choosing the date of this future genocide via lottery, which is what gives the holiday its name.</p><p>Esther, whom the king hadn't known was Jewish, came clean and pleaded with him to spare them — and he agreed.</p><p>So while the story has a happy ending, it is based on attempted mass murder.</p><h2>The Christian holiday Good Friday marks the day Jesus was crucified</h2><div type="image" title="good friday cross" height="2884" width="3845" msid="77981848" hostid="261"></div><p>Good Friday marks the day that Jesus Christ was painfully flogged and crucified by the Romans. </p><p>It falls on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, which also isn't as happy as the <a href="https://www.insider.com/meaning-of-easter-symbols-2017-4">pastel colored eggs and chocolate bunnies</a> would lead you to believe, but since it's about someone coming <em>back</em> to life, as opposed to a gruesome execution, it doesn't make the cut.</p><h2>Columbus Day celebrates Christopher Columbus' 'discovery' of America, even though his arrival decimated the population of native people</h2><div type="image" title="landing of columbus" height="654" width="872" msid="77981854" hostid="261"></div><p>Columbus Day, which commemorates the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas, was celebrated unofficially for years before becoming an official federal holiday in 1937.</p><p>Most kids across the US are taught that Columbus "discovered" the United States of America when, in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.</p><p>In reality, people had already been living there. In fact, his arrival decimated the population of natives that were already living there by exposing them to disease, forcing them to convert to Christianity, and turning them into slaves.</p><p>It's no wonder people are calling for a name change, like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/columbus-day-indigenous-peoples-day-cities-christopher-columbus-2017-10">Indigenous Peoples Day</a>.</p><h2>St. Patrick's Day commemorates his death</h2><div type="image" title="st patricks day" height="3291" width="4388" msid="77981858" hostid="261"></div><p>St. Patrick's Day is <a href="https://www.insider.com/st-patricks-day-worst-2018-3">a polarizing holiday. </a>While most see it as a day to drink green beer and celebrate all things Irish, in fact it was created to honor the death of St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland.</p><p>St. Patrick's life wasn't a particularly happy one either. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Ireland at age 16. He later escaped, but he eventually returned to Ireland as an adult, and is credited with "bringing" Christianity to the Emerald Isle.</p><p>While Ireland is one of the only countries to peacefully convert to Christianity, as <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2000/03/st_patrick.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Slate</a> noted, it still bears remembering that much of their culture was wiped out once they assimilated.</p><h2>The killing of innocent children is part of the story of Passover</h2><div type="image" title="passover" height="2107" width="2809" msid="77981863" hostid="261"></div><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/white-house-passover-seder-history-2021-3">Passover</a> is another Jewish holiday that revolves around drinking wine — four glasses, to be exact. And it is, sort of, a happy holiday. It celebrates the freedom of the Jewish people after escaping slavery in Egypt.</p><p>But according to the Torah, before the Jewish people could escape Egypt, God sent 10 plagues upon the Egyptian people, including turning the Nile River into blood, pitching darkness all over the country for three days, and, most tragically, killing the first-born child in every household.</p><p>It's hard to celebrate freedom when reminded of the innocent children that were killed.</p><h2>Valentine's Day started as a commemoration for a priest who was murdered for performing marriages in secret</h2><div type="image" title="valentines day rush roses" height="2003" width="2671" msid="77981867" hostid="261"></div><p>Even though Valentine's Day has emerged as a kind of Hallmark holiday that celebrates love and romance with candy and chocolate, it's not entirely clear how this came to be. According to <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The History Channel</a>, there were three separate St. Valentines, all who were martyrs.</p><p>The first Valentine was a priest in the time of Emperor Claudius, in third-century Rome. Claudius reportedly banned marriage, but Valentine defied him, secretly marrying couples anyway. Legend has it that his surreptitious activity was discovered, and that he was put to death for it on February 14.</p><p>Another Valentine is believed to have helped Christian prisoners escape from harsh Roman prisons, and was also killed for his actions on February 14.</p><p>Yet another legend still is about an imprisoned Valentine that fell in love with a woman, perhaps the jailer's daughter, and sent her the first Valentine's card, signed "From your Valentine."</p><p>But whether Saint Valentine was killed for performing secret marriages, for helping people escape from abusive prisons, or in prison himself, no story explains why we celebrate the holiday the way we do today.</p><h2>Halloween was created when people feared that dead spirits would rise again</h2><div type="image" title="samhain" height="800" width="1200" msid="77981868" hostid="261"></div><p>Halloween originated from a Celtic festival called Samhain, which was celebrated 2,000 years ago and revolved around lighting bonfires and wearing costumes to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/where-halloween-comes-from-2015-10">ward off spirits and fairies</a> — yes, Halloween began because people truly believed that it was a time when dead spirits would rise again, and walk among them.</p><p>Back then, costumes acted as protection, not just an excuse to <a href="https://www.insider.com/easy-last-minute-halloween-costumes-2017-10">show off your Pinterest skills</a>.</p><p>Not much is known about the ancient holiday since there are no written records, though per <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Samhain">Encyclopedia Britannica</a>, "it was a time fraught with danger, charged with fear, and full of supernatural episodes."</p>

From Thanksgiving to Labor Day, these 9 holidays have surprisingly dark origins

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">LANCET PRESS OFFICE/AFP</p></div>Scans of mummies from as long ago as 2,000 BC have revealed that ancient people also had clogged arteries, a condition blamed on modern vices like <keyword id="6357278" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Smoking">smoking</keyword>, overeating and inactivity, a study said Monday.</p>
<p>The finding, published in the Lancet medical journal, casts doubt on our understanding of the condition known as atherosclerosis that causes heart attacks and strokes.</p>
<p>"The presence of atherosclerosis in premodern human beings suggests that the <keyword id="6361612" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="disease">disease</keyword> is an inherent component of human <keyword id="24314" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="aging">aging</keyword> and not associated with any specific diet or lifestyle," states the study conclusion.</p>
<p>"A common assumption is that the rise in levels of atherosclerosis is predominantly lifestyle-related, and that if modern humans could emulate pre-industrial or even pre-agricultural lifestyles, that atherosclerosis... would be avoided," cardiologist Randall Thompson, one of the authors of the international study, said in a statement issued by Lancet.</p>
<p>"Our findings seem to cast doubt on that assumption, and at the very least, we think they suggest that our understanding of the causes of atherosclerosis is incomplete, and that it might be somehow inherent to the process of human ageing."</p>
<p>This did not mean that lifestyle factors should be discounted, senior author Gregory Thomas, medical director of the MemorialCare Heart and Vascular Institute at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center in California, told <keyword id="68053" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="AFP">AFP</keyword>.</p>
<p>They have been shown in study after study to contribute to the development of atherosclerosis, though the degree remains unclear.</p>
<p>"Our study demonstrates... that we are all at risk of atherosclerosis," said Thomas.</p>
<p>"We should do the very best we can to avoid these risk factors. We can not expect, however, that avoiding them will prevent atherosclerosis."</p>
<p>Atherosclerosis is a hardening and narrowing of the arteries that transport oxygen-rich blood from the heart, through a buildup of fatty material or cholesterol.</p>
<p>The World Health Organisation considers smoking, physical inactivity, a high-salt, high-fat diet and high alcohol use as risk factors.</p>
<p>For this study, the researchers performed full-body computed tomography (CT) scans on 137 mummies from four geographic regions in modern-day Egypt, Peru, southwest America and Alaska.</p>
<p>The mummies were of people who had lived over a 4,000-year period stretching from ancient Egypt in about 2,000 BC to the Unangan hunter-gatherers who lived in the Aleutian Islands of modern-day Alaska as recently as 1930.</p>
<p>The team diagnosed "probable or definite" atherosclerosis in more than a third of the mummies on the basis of calcification of the arteries shown up by the scans.</p>
<p>A similar diagnostic method is used today.</p>
<p>The calcification was found in the same locations as in modern humans, and the appearance was the same.</p>
<p>"Our findings greatly increase the number of ancient people known to have atherosclerosis and show for the first time that the disease was common in several ancient cultures with varying lifestyles, diets and genetics, across a wide geographical distance and over a very long span of human history," the scientists wrote.</p>
<p>"These findings suggest that our understanding of the causative factors of atherosclerosis is incomplete."</p>
<p>The mummies of older people were more likely to show signs of the disease, just as in humans today.</p>
<p>Other research cited in the study has found atherosclerosis to be common in people living today, even ubiquitous in men by age 60 and women by 70.</p>
<p>"We simply don't know enough about the diet and lifestyle of the people studied to say whether behaviour or genetics lies at the root" of the disease, the British Heart Foundation said in a comment on the study.</p>
<p>And Grethe Tell, an expert with the European Society of Cardiology, told AFP the findings "do not refute" that an unhealthy lifestyle increased the risk of heart attack and stroke.</p>
<p>"Not everybody who has atherosclerosis (whatever the cause may be) gets clinical disease," she explained.</p>
<p>"Lifestyle factors increase the risk of heart attacks and may therefore be a triggering factor in the chain between atherosclerosis and heart attack."</p>
<p>According to the study, the ancient populations' diets had been varied -- including everything from shellfish and fish, game, domesticated cattle, sheep, pigs and ducks to a wide variety of berries, farmed maize, beans and potato -- even beer and wine in the case of the Egyptians.</p>
<p>None of the groups were known to be vegetarian, and physical activity was probably high.</p>
<p>Smoke inhalation may have played a role, as many of the communities used indoor fires for cooking and heating.</p>
<p>Clogged arteries previously observed in ancient Egyptian mummies had hitherto been attributed to a high-fat diet of the elite -- as poor people in those communities were not mummified.</p>
<p>The latest findings also refute that conclusion.</p>
<div class="nc_footer">
<p>Copyright (2013) AFP. All rights reserved.</p>
</div>
<p></p>

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