It Was Cold: Support for Ergotized Beer During the Neolithic Transition

Abstract

Using paleoclimatic evidence, this article supports and expands the idea that ergotized beer may have influenced the Neolithic transition in Western Asia (i.e., the Fertile Crescent). Recently, Muraresku proposed that ergotized beer may have enhanced the ritual activity of a skull cult at Göbekli Tepe ~11.5–10 thousand years ago (KYA). Around a hundred miles south of Göbekli Tepe is Abu Hureyra, which also hosted a skull cult and is where Hillman famously argued rye may have been the earliest domesticated grain at least 13 KYA. Among the cereal grains, ergot most commonly infects rye. Rather than being an “Achilles’ heel” for rye, as later suggested by Hillman and coauthors, this article suggests ergot may have been an impetus for the increased exploitation of rye at Abu Hureyra and other sites in the Middle Euphrates valley (e.g., Mureybet). Changing climate after the Younger Dryas (12.8–11.6 KYA) then moved the ergot window from the Middle Euphrates valley to the “hilly flanks” in the Taurus Mountains, where Göbekli Tepe and similar sites (e.g., Nevalı Çori) are located. By 10–9.5 KYA, coinciding with the abandonment of these sites, the climate in the Fertile Crescent had reached warmer and drier conditions that were no longer favorable for ergot.

Keywords: ergot, beer, rye, Abu Hureyra, Göbekli Tepe