5,000-year-old pub discovered in Iraq© University of Pennsylvania & Pisa

Archaeologists Have Discovered A 5,000-Year-Old Pub In Iraq

Salva Mubarak
Senior Features Writer

In a discovery that has the potential of providing incredible insights into the everyday lives of one of the earliest civilisations on Earth, archaeologists have discovered a 5,000-year-old pub in Iraq.

A team of American and Italian experts from the Universities of Pennsylvania and Pisa discovered the artefacts among the ancient Lagash ruins, northeast of the present-day city of Nasitiya in Southern Iraq. The location is known to be one of the Sumerian civilization’s earliest urban centres.

Amongst the ruins, they discovered a large oven, dining benches, 150 serving dishes, and the remains of a prehistoric refrigeration system. The team was also able to identify fish and animal bones that were still present in some of the bowls, as well as signs of beer use which was common amongst Sumerians.

Project director Holly Pittman spoke to AFP about the monumental discovery and said, “What we understand this thing to be is a place where people, regular people, could come to eat and that is not domestic,” she said, “We call it a tavern because beer is by far the most common drink, even more than water, for the Sumerians.”

She also added that in one of the excavation sites, close to these ruins, an ancient beer recipe was found carved into a cuneiform tablet.