The Bedik people in Senegal still brew their sorghum beer in traditional ceramic vessels. | Photo: A. Mayor (2016)

You can tell when a ceramic vessel was once used to brew beer, because the different stages of cooking and fermenting the grain leave behind certain characteristic traces of use. Researchers at the University of Geneva have reached this conclusion by studying the traditional production of sorghum beer in villages in south-eastern Senegal.

Traces like these can help researchers to identify sites in archaeological excavations where beer used to be brewed. “Until now, very little has been known about ancient beer production in sub-Saharan Africa”, says the ethnoarchaeologist Anne Mayor. But beer-brewing has a very long tradition there. The archaeological investigation of beer production is important, she says, if we are going to achieve a better grasp of the social, economic and religious organisation of past societies.

P. Debels et al.: Identifying Past Beer Production: Contributions from an Ethnoarchaeological Study in Bedik Villages, Senegal. Ethnoarchaeology (2024)