UF Archaeology Team Unearths Oldest Known Brewery In Andes

July 29, 2004

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida archaeologists have uncovered what appears to be the oldest known brewery in the Andes, a facility at least 1,000 years old capable of churning out hundreds of gallons of beer for the nobles who led the pre-Incan Wari Empire.

The brewery was discovered at Cerro Baúl, a mountaintop city and former Wari religious and cultural center over 8,000 feet above sea level in what is now southern Peru. It contains at least 20 ceramic vats for liquid, as well as the remains of fire pits and large stones that once supported the 10- to 15-gallon vats as the beer brewed.

“You get the idea that this is massive production, not just your basic household making beer to consume by itself,” said Susan deFrance, an assistant professor of anthropology at UF.

Remarkably, the archaeologists at UF and the Field Museum in Chicago excavating the site have found no nearby source of water for the brewery. In fact, the nearest possibility lies hundreds of feet down a steep mountain trail.

The difficulty of brewing large quantities of beer in such conditions highlights the religious and ceremonial importance of Cerro Baúl, said Patrick Ryan Williams, a courtesy assistant professor at UF and an assistant curator of anthropology at the Field Museum.

“All food and water – everything – had to be brought up from below. That’s thousands of liters a day being brought up on people’s backs,” Williams said, adding that the Wari considered the mountains the sacred link between Earth and heaven.

The Wari occupied Cerro Baúl from about 550 to 1050, disappearing for reasons not fully understood before the ascension of the Incan empire in about 1300. UF researchers have been exploring Cerro Baúl since about 1993. Last year, they identified what Mike Moseley, a UF distinguished professor and associate chairman of anthropology, called “ritual libation halls” where Wari noblemen apparently feasted and drank. Figuring the celebrants had to be supplied somehow, they expanded their investigation to try to locate the brewery – finding the first remnants of the site about two weeks ago.

The facility churned out a brew called chicha, with the dominant ingredient a small berry from the molle pepper plant. The final product wouldn’t taste much like modern beer or even modern chicha, which is made from corn and still enjoyed by indigenous people in the area. Though it probably was not as strong as today’s beer, Moseley said, “If you drank a couple, you’d know it was alcohol.”

Ritual intoxication was an important element of Wari life, he said, with people drinking heavily – and exclusively – at ceremonies marking events, such as the start of the growing season.

The drinking halls, Moseley said, “become a place where politics are negotiated and economic decisions are made, so this particular complex is marvelous in so far as we have both the brewing facility” and the halls.

One of the most remarkable elements of the site is that the Wari who last occupied Cerro Baúl around 1050 apparently destroyed the facility in a ritual closing rite, burning the structure and throwing their mugs into the embers, he said. The archeologists’ findings include drinking mugs, decorative copper plaques, small boxes containing mineral pigments possibly used for cosmetics – and numerous beads.

“After the ashes cooled,” he said, “they laid down a half-dozen necklaces of semi-precious stones and they left.”

The research was funded by a $15,000 grant from the UF Foundation and a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which also pledged an additional $50,000 for the work, Williams said. The researchers are continuing their investigation of the site.