Merryn Dineley - Barley, Malt and Ale in the Neolithic

In the six chapters of this thesis Dineley argues convincingly that:
• It is possible to brew a decent ale that holds good for months with techniques available in the Neolithic
• The material culture pattern for brewing activity can be established in prehistory from the fertile Crescent to Orkney
• Women were the very first grain cultivators and processors and with their knowledge of ritualized skills held positions of status and significance.
• Neolithic ‘rectangular wooden buildings’ can be reinterpretated as the places where grains were processed into malt and ale. That these burn down every now and then is also explained without need of the -imho ludicrous- hypotheses of ritual burning of so many buildings.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thesis, it is well written and balanced.

This podcast let me to her work and it is really a joy to listen to her and her husband Graham

https://prehistoryguys.podbean.com/e/podcast-22-beer-in-the-neolithic-merryn-graham-dineley/

Direct link to the mp3: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/s8y1hb/p_open_s_600aebff0af9155b5c6af4dc_e_sws_podbean_com_2F215b6ab0-364f-530f-a21e-d0bfbe0cd6c8_media.mp3

Merryn seems to be a bit less active on her blog nowadays, but still very interesting: http://merryn.dineley.com/?m=1

#WatWouterLas26 #LezenIsLeuk #Archeology #Neolithic #Reading #Bookstodon #Boekstadon

The Nebra Sky Disk is particularly impressive. It is the deprocessualized and materialized symbolization of embodied experience of cyclical natural processes. A calendar from a time before ours. In my recent writings, I have attempted to explore what this means for a theory of understanding.

#archaeology #nebra #museum #paleolithic #mesolithic #neolithic