Patrick E. McGovern (1)

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1126010.html

a survey of recent findings in archaeology about early wine-making. McGowan concludes that grapes were first domesticated for wine-making in eastern Turkey or the south Caucasus (certainly my Georgian friends would agree, and would be a bit more specific). We wander around Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean, using the latest analytical techniques to try and pin down places of production and trade routes. The extent of show more the wine trade into ancient Egypt in particular was pretty remarkable, and the Mesopotamian sacred barmaids rather intriguing.

I wasn't completely satisfied by the book, however. It seemed a bit of an artificial distinction to relegate beer and mead to mere details, when it would seem that beer was at least as widespread. And while the argument about the extent of ancient international trade in wine was well developed, I would have liked more comparison with trade in other luxury goods, or indeed other goods at all. I have to say also that the style is at times an uncomfortable mix of the anecdotal and the jargon-ridden. I couldn't really recommend this book to people who are not already somewhat interested in the archaeology and culture of the period. show less

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.

McGovern sometimes has the habit of jumping to conclusions a little, but his mentions of the science behind the discovery is show more interesting and informative. show less

An accessibly written and intriguing prehistory of humanity's desire to create fermented alcoholic beverages and the varied social and political roles for such drinks: beer, wine, mead, grog, chicha, etc. It's a global, millennia-long tour of our fascination with fermentation and the biocultural consequences for human evolution of discovering an amazing array of brews.

There's some interesting tidbits here and there in the book. It also looks like a good starting point for someone interested in the history of alcoholic drinks. Also anyone interested in the history of the ancient world might be interested in. There's a couple of drawbacks though:

1) The book feels disorganized. You find yourself leaping from time period to time period and place to place.

2) Toward the very end of the book all the sudden there's maps which would have been much more usable in show more the start of the book.

3) The audience feels unclear. The author takes the time to explain molecular anthropology, but dives into using archeological terms without much explanation. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's aimed for a layperson or student who has some familiarity with archeology. show less