5,000 Year-Old Tavern Discovered in Iraq – IOTW Report

5,000 Year-Old Tavern Discovered in Iraq

Newser-

With the exception of beer, the tavern has everything a tavern should: an open-air dining area, benches, a kitchen complete with a refrigerator and oven, even food. The catch: all of it is more than 5,000 years old. Archaeologists have announced the discovery of the buried pub in the ancient Iraqi city of Lagash (modern-day Al-Hiba), which was once among the largest cities of Mesopotamia. It was also one of the oldest, dating back to the fifth millennium BC, per CNN. The tavern dates to 2700 BC and suggests that society had developed a middle class by then. As CNN reports, it was previously believed that there were only elites and those enslaved.

“The fact that you have a public gathering place where people can sit down and have a pint and have their fish stew, they’re not laboring under the tyranny of kings,” nor would they be oppressed, University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Reed Goodman, part of the excavation team, tells CNN. About that fish stew: archaeologists uncovered storage containers that still contained fish remains. That was in addition to a clay refrigeration device known as a zeer and what Reed describes as a “beautiful” oven. “From various burning episodes and deposits of ash it left a sort of rainbow coloration in the soils and the interior is framed by these big bricks,” he says.

more

13 Comments on 5,000 Year-Old Tavern Discovered in Iraq

  1. CNN is telling us about living 5,000 years ago, based upon what archeologists found in a Pub??

    CNN doesn’t tell the truth about today’s society, why would I believe anything CNN says?

    12
  2. Off topic but FYI anyway. The Republican Party of Kentucky has come out swinging against Gov Brashear (D) in the last few days over several “scandals” he’s involved in as Governor. The biggest one in my mind and the one of possible interest here is the mishandling of funds that are supposed to go to the West Kentucky Tornado victims from Dec 2021’s horrific tornado. Apparently a lot of the money has ended up going to people who aren’t victims of that event. You can find tweets about it on their Twitter profile @KYGOP. And that’s just one of the hot topics they’re bringing up.

    10
  3. Here’s what happened to the fine citizen’s of Lagash — from Lagash wiki:

    Destruction of Lagash by the Akkadian Empire (circa 2300 BC)
    Fragments of the Victory Stele of Rimush. The Victory Stele also has an epigraphic fragment, mentioning Akkad and Lagash.[20] It suggests the stele represents the defeat of Lagash by the troops of Akkad.[21]

    In his conquest of Sumer circa 2300 BC, Sargon of Akkad, after conquering and destroying Uruk, then conquered Ur and E-Ninmar and “laid waste” the territory from Lagash to the sea, and from there went on to conquer and destroy Umma, and he collected tribute from Mari and Elam. He triumphed over 34 cities in total.[22]

    Sargon’s son and successor Rimush faced widespread revolts, and had to reconquer the cities of Ur, Umma, Adab, Lagash, Der, and Kazallu from rebellious ensis.[23]

    Rimush introduced mass slaughter and large scale destruction of the Sumerian city-states, and maintained meticulous records of his destructions.[24] Most of the major Sumerian cities were destroyed, and Sumerian human losses were enormous: for the cities of Ur and Lagash, he records 8,049 killed, 5,460 “captured and enslaved” and 5,985 “expelled and annihilated”.[24][25]

    Only people that were socializing in the pub were rich citizens – all else were slaves. I believe they were partaking of booze and each other. They’re located near the regions of Babylon and Sodom and Gomorrah

    (I look up this stuff because I love history).

    8
  4. “After examining places frequented by elites, they focused on a non-elite urban neighborhood to get a better understanding of the society…”

    Neat find, but I’m not trusting a single word that woke leftist anthropologists have to say about “elites” and “non-elites” of 5,000 yeas ago. Or the current year, for that matter. Stick to the relics and spare me Stone-Age Equity pipe dreams, Indiana Marx.

    9
  5. “KY elected a dem Gov?”

    Yep. I’m not entirely sure whether Kentucky is considered red or blue but I tend to think of it as purple. Maybe a reddish purple but purple nonetheless. Mainly because we tend to lean blue for Governor and red for the legislature, at least nowadays. We have had some GOP governors in my lifetime but not many. Out and about in the state it can be a toss-up that changes directions with each election although that’s even leaning more and more red. So, yeah, purple.

    3
  6. “…he records 8,049 killed, 5,460 “captured and enslaved” and 5,985 “expelled and annihilated”.”…….. Hmmmmmmm.. I am wondering is killed better than annihilated? just wondering.
    FJB

    1

Comments are closed.