Archaeologists: Ancient Brewery Tended By Elite, Female Brewmasters
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In a paper to appear next week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they make public another noteworthy discovery: At least 10 elegant metal shawl pins on the brewery floor.
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“The brewers were not only women, but elite women,” said Donna Nash, an adjunct curator at The Field Museum and one of a team of archaeologists who have spent years excavating the remnants of the city atop a mesa known today as Cerro Baúl. “They weren’t slaves, and they weren’t people of low status. So the fact that they made the beer probably made it even more special.”
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The discovery of the shawl pins is important in part because it suggests a historical antecedent to Incan customs recorded by Spanish observers after conquest in the 15th century. Those accounts describe Incan noble women as the society’s top brewers and most skilled weavers. The finding is also noteworthy because it adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that women in Incan and pre-Incan Andean societies in general had greater authority than they are historically credited for.
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“There’s a lot of equality in terms of how men and women drink in the highlands of Andes,” she said. “Women will get as rip-roaring drunk, if not more so, than men.”
Hee.
Quite different than today. There are only a few female brewers in the industry, the only one that comes to mind is Hildegard van Osta of Urthel Brewery in Belgium.