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Article: Elite priestess class brewed beer in Peru, researcher says.
- Article from:
- Modern Brewery Age
- Article date:
- November 28, 2005
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In an ancient mountaintop city in Pre-Incan Peru, beer was a dietary staple, brewed by an elite corps of beautiful noblewomen. It may sound like a beer geek's fantasy, but this is the entirely sober conclusion reached by a research team headed by anthropologist Michael E. Moseley of the University of Florida.
The high-altitude brewery produced hundreds of gallons of beer each week in the 400-year-old city of Cerro Baul, which was a remote outpost of the Wari empire, a society that predated the Incas.
The city--and its brewery--were abruptly abandoned around the year 1005 A.D. The roofs of buildings were burned, and the ceramic vessels used to drink beer ...