It’s always been true that the things we eat and drink tell us who we are. But “to understand how something was used [in the past], you have to look at the bigger picture,” says Bettina Arnold, a professor of anthropology with a homebrewing background who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In the growing disciplines of biomolecular and experimental archaeology, new discoveries and technology enable interdisciplinary teams of scholars, scientists, and brewers to bring ancient foods and drinks back from the dead.
Learning what was in an ancient beverage, who made it, who drank it, and why helps us tell a more complete human story. This work is about making the invisible visible, and bringing what has been hidden into the light. Alcohol evaporates and food disintegrates, leaving behind only their chemical signatures, but scientists now have the technology to detect and analyze these molecules. It’s also about context, however, and context can change everything.