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Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages
In a lively tour around the world and through the millennia, Uncorking the Past tells the compelling story of humanity's ingenious, intoxicating quest for the perfect drink. Following a tantalizing trail of archaeological, chemical, artistic, and textual clues, Patrick E. McGovern, the leading authority on ancient alcoholic beverages, brings us up to date on what we now know about how humans created and enjoyed fermented beverages across cultures. Along the way, he explores a provocative hypothesis about the integral role such libations have played in human evolution. We discover, for example, that the cereal staples of the modern world were probably domesticated for their potential in making quantities of alcoholic beverages. These include the delectable rice wines of China and Japan, the corn beers of the Americas, and the millet and sorghum drinks of Africa. Humans also learned how to make mead from honey and wine from exotic fruits of all kinds-even from the sweet pulp of the cacao (chocolate) fruit in the New World. The perfect drink, it turns out-whether it be mind-altering, medicinal, a religious symbol, a social lubricant, or artistic inspiration-has not only been a profound force in history, but may be fundamental to the human condition itself.
348 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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579 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
April 16, 2011
I suppose I ought to make one thing clear before I go any further - this is by no means a 'pop science' book dealing with the history of alcoholic beverages. It's a serious archeological and anthropological study of ancient cultures and their drinking rituals and methods of crafting different alcoholic drinks. The author's main thesis is fascinating - besides the obvious universality of alcoholic beverages, the author at times states the case that the search for alcoholic beverages is what really prompted civilization to prosper and flourish, possibly even more so than food itself.
This is at times a fascinating read, and at times it's incredibly dry and boring. The author is clearly knowledgeable about his subject, and I assume passionate, but it doesn't always come across in the writing. He tends to go off on tangents regarding details of pottery shards and dry descriptions (closely resembling lists at times) of the different beverages found in whatever geographic region he is discussing. But then there are times McGovern goes into fascinating details about cultural history and his own archeological ventures that are riveting. This is of course my own personal opinion. McGovern is clearly a better scientist than he is a wordsmith, so it all depends on what the reader (or the author) is more interested in reading about.
I would recommend this book only if you're really interested in archeology and anthropology as well as alcoholic beverages and their history. This is by no means a casual read, but it's a rather important one. Alcohol, as the author demonstrates, has been around longer than life itself, and humans have attempted to master it and craft it as long as they have been able to pick up tools. It's a close relationship that's not going anywhere anytime soon, so if you're interested in learning more about it, and don't mind being put to sleep by someone who is informative, but not always the best writer, by all means pick this one up.
This is at times a fascinating read, and at times it's incredibly dry and boring. The author is clearly knowledgeable about his subject, and I assume passionate, but it doesn't always come across in the writing. He tends to go off on tangents regarding details of pottery shards and dry descriptions (closely resembling lists at times) of the different beverages found in whatever geographic region he is discussing. But then there are times McGovern goes into fascinating details about cultural history and his own archeological ventures that are riveting. This is of course my own personal opinion. McGovern is clearly a better scientist than he is a wordsmith, so it all depends on what the reader (or the author) is more interested in reading about.
I would recommend this book only if you're really interested in archeology and anthropology as well as alcoholic beverages and their history. This is by no means a casual read, but it's a rather important one. Alcohol, as the author demonstrates, has been around longer than life itself, and humans have attempted to master it and craft it as long as they have been able to pick up tools. It's a close relationship that's not going anywhere anytime soon, so if you're interested in learning more about it, and don't mind being put to sleep by someone who is informative, but not always the best writer, by all means pick this one up.
February 16, 2021
It takes real effort in publishing to begin with a fascinating topic, a wealth of data both old and fresh, a brilliant academic specialist in the field, and stimuli for new research, add them together and produce a dismal book. Congratulations, U Cal Press, you did just that. The nicest thing I can say for Uncorking the Past is that it's much like a box in your grandparents' attic: full of things that range from the highly personal and intimate to the generally wonderful, but tossed together helter-skelter. Neither fish nor fowl, this book is neither scholarly nor a memoir but it reads more the way a Travel Channel special plays for vicarious titillation.
First, this IS my field and I'm familiar with McGovern's academic work and it's superior, as is that of his students and colleagues. I did have expectations. My son was assigned this book for a university anthropology course, so I felt the need to dive into it. The possibilities of an accessible book just about finds and interpretations on a global scale seemed wonderful, and such were my expectations. This book, however, was edited and shaped into a pastiche of anecdotes, name-dropping, some science and some repetition, and then apparently marketed as general-interest non-fiction. Sorry, Pat, but I don't care about the banquets you were invited to, the tastings you attended, the hands you shook: I wasn't there and I don't care that you were. That's not germane to human cultural and genetic relationships to ethanol. The poorly coordinated narrative bouncing from Neolithic to first millennium CE to modern era and back again within two paragraphs was both annoying and confusing. This could have been such a better book; it is not.
Worse to me is the straining effort put into this from the first chapter on to associate the production and consumption of fermented alcohol with shamanic ritual and religious practice, repeatedly using the disclaimers "possibly," "likely," "maybe" or "perhaps." Say it once and let the data carry the argument for pity's sake.
The last chapter is the best, shortest, and most memorable; read it. In it, McGovern discusses specific genetic triggers affecting brain behavior re: alcohol; he discusses physiology and genetic diversity, and cultural differences in alcohol perception. It's damned good, but too little too late.
First, this IS my field and I'm familiar with McGovern's academic work and it's superior, as is that of his students and colleagues. I did have expectations. My son was assigned this book for a university anthropology course, so I felt the need to dive into it. The possibilities of an accessible book just about finds and interpretations on a global scale seemed wonderful, and such were my expectations. This book, however, was edited and shaped into a pastiche of anecdotes, name-dropping, some science and some repetition, and then apparently marketed as general-interest non-fiction. Sorry, Pat, but I don't care about the banquets you were invited to, the tastings you attended, the hands you shook: I wasn't there and I don't care that you were. That's not germane to human cultural and genetic relationships to ethanol. The poorly coordinated narrative bouncing from Neolithic to first millennium CE to modern era and back again within two paragraphs was both annoying and confusing. This could have been such a better book; it is not.
Worse to me is the straining effort put into this from the first chapter on to associate the production and consumption of fermented alcohol with shamanic ritual and religious practice, repeatedly using the disclaimers "possibly," "likely," "maybe" or "perhaps." Say it once and let the data carry the argument for pity's sake.
The last chapter is the best, shortest, and most memorable; read it. In it, McGovern discusses specific genetic triggers affecting brain behavior re: alcohol; he discusses physiology and genetic diversity, and cultural differences in alcohol perception. It's damned good, but too little too late.
Read
June 2, 2010Ok, so this guy did his chemical-socio-histo-anthropological homework.
This book is not a silly "fun drinking stories with history tossed in" book, it's a serious, in-depth thesis on the ancient origins, practices, culture, and all-around anthropoligical analysis of alcoholic beverages. This book should easily be in the sociology or history sections of the local bookstore. The timeline is proto-Egypt up through the Conquistator/early America colonization, but really no further. It mostly sticks around in B.C., although some in A.D., and crosses nearly every continent.
Interesting read, very dense with information, but not for light poolside entertainment. This is more like reference material for collegiate/graduate-level work.
(I should note that, after reading this book, I am in serious search for many of the concoctions that the author had Dogfish Head brewers recreate, Midas Touch being number one on the list.)
This book is not a silly "fun drinking stories with history tossed in" book, it's a serious, in-depth thesis on the ancient origins, practices, culture, and all-around anthropoligical analysis of alcoholic beverages. This book should easily be in the sociology or history sections of the local bookstore. The timeline is proto-Egypt up through the Conquistator/early America colonization, but really no further. It mostly sticks around in B.C., although some in A.D., and crosses nearly every continent.
Interesting read, very dense with information, but not for light poolside entertainment. This is more like reference material for collegiate/graduate-level work.
(I should note that, after reading this book, I am in serious search for many of the concoctions that the author had Dogfish Head brewers recreate, Midas Touch being number one on the list.)
August 7, 2011
I thought this book was: "Eh." It had a lot of potential, but I didn't like the writing style. Did anyone else ever have to write an "I-Search" paper in high school. It was a fad for a while, but it was essentially a research paper but you wove into the research your personal stories of why you were doing the research and the process of researching. I hated that assignment and still find it distracting. In the end, I picked up the book because I thought the topic was interesting - not because I thought the process of researching was interesting. I finally put it down when I was about 2/3 of the way through it when I realized I was just trying to finish the book for completeness-sake rather than because the story was pulling me through.
October 24, 2013
Craft beer fans know Patrick McGovern as "Doctor Pat," the archaeologist behind the Dogfishhead Ancient Ales series (Midas Touch, Chateau Jiahu, Ta Heneket, etc.). McGovern is a UPenn archaeologist who has found a niche for himself analyzing the residues left behind in ancient vessels to determine whether they contained fermented alcoholic beverages and if so what those beverages may have been made of. This research leads in many directions: it tells you what sources of sugar and carbohydrates may have been available to a people, it establishes how long alcohol has been a part of human cultures (long story short: a very long time), what role alcoholic beverages played ancient societies, etc.
Uncorking the Past is McGovern's second book on the archaeology of ancient beverages and is very ambitious. It more or less aims to set out everything we currently know about the dawn of alcoholic fermentation practices throughout the entire world from the dawn of human existence through roughly the first millennium AD. It's an exceedingly complicated story. Not only is he presenting a lot of evidence that he himself admits is sometimes tenuous and open to multiple interpretations (which he presents fairly and in full), but he's also following a great number of concurrent developments in different places throughout the ancient world: Mediterranean cultures, East Asia, Africa, the Americas, etc. all follow their own history that is often roughly concurrent and sometimes interrelated. It's hard to say where one story should end and another begin, which presents a narrative challenge. Added to this is the fact that McGovern shares the stories of many of the excavations themselves- and why wouldn't he, given that some were autobiographical? But that adds another complicated timeline, since we don't discover evidence of past cultures in chronological order. So the archaeological dig in King Midas's tomb that led to the Dogfish release of Midas Touch comes after the Chateau Jiahu dig, even though the King Midas discovery came first. Suffice it to say that if you were writing a novel you would simplify this timeline, but when you're writing non-fiction all you can do is attempt to present in the most logical and least confusing way the facts will allow you to.
As far as readability, when you pick this book up, it is an academic press book. Its primary ambition is to tell the history that the archaeological evidence allows and keep you up to date with current discoveries (which may already be dated, since the book was published in 2009). He doesn't drown you in academese, but he does use some terminology and abbreviations you might not be up on and assume you have some knowledge of the general timeline of human history. One thing I did find a bit confusing as a layman was some of the shorthand for dates. Just to share, "mya" (no caps, no periods) is "million years ago" (I had never seen this before) and he mixes years "BP" (before present) with "BC/AD" freely. So you may find 4000 BC written as 4000 BC or as 6000 BP. For me this is even more complicated by the fact that I haven't really given a lot of thought to pre-history since leaving high school, so I was constantly attempting to find a mental reference for what the world might have been like in, say, 4500 BC, and having very little to go on.
All of this is to say that this book has a strong appeal if you're interested in archaeology and early anthropology and ancient prehistory. And it's not just about booze- Dr. Pat has a strong interest in music and religious experience (and other drugs as they may appear). For those who are interested in how Dogfish brewed Chateau Jiahu, this probably isn't your book. But if you get a chance to see Dr. Pat speak publicly (I purchased my copy directly from him at a lecture) I highly recommend the experience regardless of your area of interest.
Uncorking the Past is McGovern's second book on the archaeology of ancient beverages and is very ambitious. It more or less aims to set out everything we currently know about the dawn of alcoholic fermentation practices throughout the entire world from the dawn of human existence through roughly the first millennium AD. It's an exceedingly complicated story. Not only is he presenting a lot of evidence that he himself admits is sometimes tenuous and open to multiple interpretations (which he presents fairly and in full), but he's also following a great number of concurrent developments in different places throughout the ancient world: Mediterranean cultures, East Asia, Africa, the Americas, etc. all follow their own history that is often roughly concurrent and sometimes interrelated. It's hard to say where one story should end and another begin, which presents a narrative challenge. Added to this is the fact that McGovern shares the stories of many of the excavations themselves- and why wouldn't he, given that some were autobiographical? But that adds another complicated timeline, since we don't discover evidence of past cultures in chronological order. So the archaeological dig in King Midas's tomb that led to the Dogfish release of Midas Touch comes after the Chateau Jiahu dig, even though the King Midas discovery came first. Suffice it to say that if you were writing a novel you would simplify this timeline, but when you're writing non-fiction all you can do is attempt to present in the most logical and least confusing way the facts will allow you to.
As far as readability, when you pick this book up, it is an academic press book. Its primary ambition is to tell the history that the archaeological evidence allows and keep you up to date with current discoveries (which may already be dated, since the book was published in 2009). He doesn't drown you in academese, but he does use some terminology and abbreviations you might not be up on and assume you have some knowledge of the general timeline of human history. One thing I did find a bit confusing as a layman was some of the shorthand for dates. Just to share, "mya" (no caps, no periods) is "million years ago" (I had never seen this before) and he mixes years "BP" (before present) with "BC/AD" freely. So you may find 4000 BC written as 4000 BC or as 6000 BP. For me this is even more complicated by the fact that I haven't really given a lot of thought to pre-history since leaving high school, so I was constantly attempting to find a mental reference for what the world might have been like in, say, 4500 BC, and having very little to go on.
All of this is to say that this book has a strong appeal if you're interested in archaeology and early anthropology and ancient prehistory. And it's not just about booze- Dr. Pat has a strong interest in music and religious experience (and other drugs as they may appear). For those who are interested in how Dogfish brewed Chateau Jiahu, this probably isn't your book. But if you get a chance to see Dr. Pat speak publicly (I purchased my copy directly from him at a lecture) I highly recommend the experience regardless of your area of interest.
April 16, 2014
I should have liked this. And yet the appeal went right over my head. *puzzled face*
March 27, 2019
Overall, 3.5 stars. This is more due to personal preference in the human and geographic “timeline”: I found the sections on Europe and the Americas more interesting, though that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the African, Asian, or Mediterranean pieces.
This is definitely a more scholarly work, but don’t let that put you off. If you enjoy history and remember a few things from chemistry class back in high school, the subjects discussed and the lexicon shouldn’t throw you off too badly.
I definitely recommend this book for those interested in the development of alcohol throughout human history. McGovern has definitely settled into a niche within the archaeological community, and his work raises just as many questions as it does in answering them. Hats off to ya, Dr. pat!
This is definitely a more scholarly work, but don’t let that put you off. If you enjoy history and remember a few things from chemistry class back in high school, the subjects discussed and the lexicon shouldn’t throw you off too badly.
I definitely recommend this book for those interested in the development of alcohol throughout human history. McGovern has definitely settled into a niche within the archaeological community, and his work raises just as many questions as it does in answering them. Hats off to ya, Dr. pat!
April 13, 2024
McGovern expertise as an archaeologist is nominally pottery. It so happens that pottery have been used to ferment and transport alcohol, so he became and expert on that. "Uncorking the Past" not only describes the fieldwork he's done, but also where it leads: figuring out formulae for five-odd-thousand year old drinks, sending the recipes to breweries, and finally sampling their creations. This is an absolute recommend for sommeliers, for others with curios palettes, for botanists, for brewers of course, for anyone interested in bronze-age history either scholarly or re-enacting. This is a top recommendation for a top expert.
May 24, 2020
Excellent review of the development of alcohol in human cultures around the world.
Informing the past is a fairly comorehensive, at times rambling, yet always fascinating overview of the development of alcohol making in human society. Though newer archeology has pushed the date for the earliest alcoholic beverage production further back in than shown in this book, it remains highly relevant in it's discussion of ancient brewing techniques and the social importance of alcohol in ancient societies.
Informing the past is a fairly comorehensive, at times rambling, yet always fascinating overview of the development of alcohol making in human society. Though newer archeology has pushed the date for the earliest alcoholic beverage production further back in than shown in this book, it remains highly relevant in it's discussion of ancient brewing techniques and the social importance of alcohol in ancient societies.
May 13, 2019
As another review wrote, this book seemed like it would be a fun read, but alas it was not. I started reading this book a few years ago and put it down because I lost interest. The only reason I finished was because of sheer determination. The archaeology seemed cobbled together and lacked over all context.
Perhaps it would be more enjoyable with some samples from Dogfish Brewery?
Perhaps it would be more enjoyable with some samples from Dogfish Brewery?
December 13, 2020
McGovern finds some profundities, but is remarkably repetitive. His three big books, "Ancient Wine", "Uncorking the Past", and "Ancient Brews" could well have been a single, equally big book. Rehashing it all, sometimes almost word for word, in each book seems more like marketing than scholarship, but, fine . . . it's a great gig if you can swing it.
March 18, 2021
Fascinating research and I learned a lot, but this is not a light read. There is a great deal of scientific information that at times, can be difficult to get through. The historical pieces about societies, their rituals, and migrations were very interesting. This is definitely not for the casually curious.
July 13, 2019
a good book on the history of alcohol, but basically the same book as Ancient Brews by the same author (only Ancient Brews has the actually recipes he uses)
January 2, 2023
A beautiful look into alcohol of the past from around the world. Inspiring.
December 8, 2023
A decent survey of alcohol traditions across the world in ancient societies.
March 19, 2015
In my never ending quest for knowledge of imbibing, I asked my brewing friend to recommend something about the history of alcohol. He handed over this book. All I can say is Oh...Wow...so much more than I thought I wanted. Patrick E. McGovern starts us out in Neolithic China. Yes I said Neolithic. Our ambitious and busy Stone Age forebears were already quaffing the fruit and honey and rice in liquid alcoholic form THAT early. Our enterprising ancestors had observed fermentation in some form and had adapted it to their uses prior to most of the paraphernalia of civilization. Well done, guys!
McGovern takes us from China to Sumer, to Persia, to Palestine, to Greece and Turkey and on and on. Just about anywhere fermentation has occurred, McGovern and his colleagues have investigated it. Not only does he tell us all about the booze, but he tells about the beakers, cauldrons, chalices and drinking straws that hold it, pour it and sip it.This is an amazing book and I was mesmerized by it. I'm sorry I have to return it to its kindly lender, and I'll be looking forward to purchasing my own copy.
So, who should read this? Cultural anthropologists both professional and hobbyist, brewers and vintners, lovers of the grape and the grain; all should try this and as soon as possible. And then we should raise our glasses to the ingenious hairy guys who made it all possible. Was hael!
McGovern takes us from China to Sumer, to Persia, to Palestine, to Greece and Turkey and on and on. Just about anywhere fermentation has occurred, McGovern and his colleagues have investigated it. Not only does he tell us all about the booze, but he tells about the beakers, cauldrons, chalices and drinking straws that hold it, pour it and sip it.This is an amazing book and I was mesmerized by it. I'm sorry I have to return it to its kindly lender, and I'll be looking forward to purchasing my own copy.
So, who should read this? Cultural anthropologists both professional and hobbyist, brewers and vintners, lovers of the grape and the grain; all should try this and as soon as possible. And then we should raise our glasses to the ingenious hairy guys who made it all possible. Was hael!
February 10, 2017
This book is a really interesting archaeological perspective on booze. McGovern has a pretty good handle on brewing and archaeological chemistry. It sounds like he's got a good handle on the literature, at least for the regions that he had a part in the analysis for.
I dislike how little time and effort he spent on North America - part of this is obviously because his book is centered around alcohol, and there isn't really evidence for it in North America, but I think spending a little more effort could have helped his theory - the negative spaces are just as important as the positive ones.
He compares modern societies to neolithic or paleolithic societies once or twice. While analogies like this are common, the way he wrote about them was more along the lines of equating them with each other than comparing similar situations. He also used the phrase "same cultural level" at one point when comparing modern African, Pacific, and North American societies to "early northern European peoples." I also don't his use of term "shaman" but that's a broader issue than this book or this man, so I'm not holding it against him.
The introduction to the Africa chapter was terrible and I'm sure there are other sections written along the same lines that I missed.
I dislike how little time and effort he spent on North America - part of this is obviously because his book is centered around alcohol, and there isn't really evidence for it in North America, but I think spending a little more effort could have helped his theory - the negative spaces are just as important as the positive ones.
He compares modern societies to neolithic or paleolithic societies once or twice. While analogies like this are common, the way he wrote about them was more along the lines of equating them with each other than comparing similar situations. He also used the phrase "same cultural level" at one point when comparing modern African, Pacific, and North American societies to "early northern European peoples." I also don't his use of term "shaman" but that's a broader issue than this book or this man, so I'm not holding it against him.
The introduction to the Africa chapter was terrible and I'm sure there are other sections written along the same lines that I missed.
October 1, 2011
This seemed better organized than his previous book Ancient Wine and I'd recommend skipping over Ancient Wine and just reading this unless you're a huge wine buff. Parts of Ancient Wine were touched on, but there's a much broader and more interesting scope of this book. The parts on the New World ancient fermentation techniques in particular fired up my imagination.[return][return]McGovern sometimes has the habit of jumping to conclusions a little, but his mentions of the science behind the discovery is interesting and informative.
June 5, 2011
If you have a stake in the history of drink, this book is probably mandatory reading as it covers the archaeological record of wine/mead/beer in prehistoric civilizations, effectively setting the stage for everything we have now. The author is one of the central researchers on the topic. My main gripes are that the illustrations often appear in bizarre places and there are no maps to help organize the avalanche of geographic references.
July 16, 2012
Another masterpiece by McGovern (See also "ancient Wine" by the same author). He is the world's leading expert on ancient beverages, and here guides you once more through the exciting interface between archaeology and modern technology, as he uses molecular archaeology to deciper ancient drinking cultures from around the world. I just liked this read for its own sake. I also read it as part of my reesearch for "Paradise Rediscovered", but would recommend it without hesitation to anybody.
Read
March 29, 2010Read my brother's copy while in SF. Main hypothesis is that human societies developed agriculture as a means for increasing production of alcoholic beverages. Many examples stated. I'm not an anthropologist, so I can't say whether this is a mainstream idea or not, but it certainly seemed plausible given the evidence.
April 22, 2014
this is tremendous collection of the archeological, anthropological, historical facts blended into history of ancient alcohol consumption. it's not a collection of articles, its a solid work yet interesting to read, author really make ancient world vivid.
June 13, 2009
Archaeological evidence for fermented beverages around the world. Fascinating. And comforting--we've been doing this a long time, and we're biologically adapted to moderate alcohol consumption.
August 19, 2010
This excellent book is really more about Paleolithic and Neolithic archaeology rather than alcohol.
June 3, 2014
There’s a lot of data here about the prehistoric and ancient origins of alcohol, but it is dense, dense, dense, and a slog to get through it all.
April 1, 2013
Very interesting read on the origins of beer, wine and fermentation, plus he's a delightful and lively writer.
November 30, 2013
Top notch historical and scientific survey of ancient alcoholic beverages from pre-historic times onward.
June 10, 2015
A fun tour around the world, examining the oldest traces of alcohols, with hints of ethnography, and suggestions of biology, built on a strong body of archaeological and chemical analysis.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews