Modern people are not the only ones who enjoy a nice drink after work or during a night out on the town. Indeed, 5,000 years ago, Sumerians in the ancient city of Lagash in southern Mesopotamia were doing exactly the same thing. While excavating the city, which is located about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, archaeologists uncovered a public eating space dated to 2700 BCE, around the same time that the legendary Gilgamesh (see “Text Treasures: Gilgamesh: A Mesopotamian Story of Longing and Loss”) would have ruled in nearby Uruk. The discovery sheds light on not only ancient food culture […]
