Independent project post #6

A History of World in 6 Glasses- 30 min reading.

Keila Delgado

Hi, and welcome to my blog. In my 30 minutes of reading "A History of World in 6 Glasses", I learned how Europe came to adopt distillation and other experimental techniques from the Arabs. Very long ago, the "most cultured city" in western Europe was not Paris, Rome, or London (90).  It was Cordoba. Cordoba was the capital of Arab Andalusia, which is now the south of Spain. Cordoba was one of the "great centers of learning" within the Arab world (94). At this time, the wisdom from the Greeks were being lost in Europe, and the Arabs were "building on knowledge" from them, Indian, and Persian origins to "further advances" in things like astronomy, mathematics, medicine, trigonometry, and much more (94). They also learned a technique that "gave a rise" to a "new range of drinks" (95). This technique is distillation.

This is a picture of Jabir ibn Hayyan's explanation of distillation in Arabic.

Distillation involves vaporizing and then "recondensing a liquid" in order to separate and purify it (95). This process has ancient origins found in mesopotamia used to make perfumes. In the Arab world, that distillation process applied to wine by the "father of chemistry", Jabir ibn Hayyan (95). Distilling wine makes it much stronger, because when the water evaporates, the alchohol stays. In some ancient wisdom, this process "helped to rekindle the spirit of learning" in Europe. 

The new drinks made from distillation became "dominant" during the Age of Exporation (97). They would be used to be transported on ships and became "economic goods" of such importance that their "taxation and control" became even more important politically which allowed it to determine the ways of history that came to be (98).

The outcome of these new drinks occurred just as European explores were first opening up the worlds sea routes which would reach the tip of Africa and cross the Atlantic to "establish" the "first links with the New World"(101). 

In this path, there were african slavers, who traded slaves with products in exchange. The "most sought-after" were alchoholic drinks (104). Wine was a good form of currency, but the slave traders realized that brandy was even better. It had higher alcohol content in a small amount of space making it a "preservative"(105). As many products became the face of trade in this exploration (like wine, alcohol, and sugar), a "powerful" new drink was made from the waste of the sugar production process. This drink was rum.

2/4/15 30 min reading, Keila Delgado

Welcome to my blog! I have spent 30 minutes reading the next several pages in "History of World in 6 Glasses". In the last chapter, we went in depth about the first beverage that made its mark through the beginning of history-beer. Tom Standage does an outstanding job of explaining this, and other concepts throughout the book.

Standage dedicates the next few paragraphs talking about the effect of "Wine in Greece and Rome"(40). He begins describing a "great feast" done by King Ashurnaspiral II of Assyria, around 870 BCE. This feast is one of the greatest, most biggest feasts in history. His palace was much like a utopia, surrounded by beautiful "canals and waterfalls", and "orchards and gardens"(43). The celebration was attended by about 69,574 people, and the feasting went of for 10 days. The "aim" of this celebration was to "demonstrate the king's power and wealth", both to his people and other foreigns (46).

This photo is of what the Great Feast might have been like.

The feast was great, but what is greater was his choice of drink. He came from Mesopotamian heritage, but did not "give pride" to their usual beverage, which was beer (48). In the carved stone shown at the palace did not show him sipping beer through a straw like the pictures in my last blog; instead, he is depicted "elegantly balancing a shallow golden bowl on the tips of the fingers of his right hand" (50). This bowl was filled with wine.

There was still beer at his feast, in fact, there was 10,000 jars served during those 10 days. But he also served an "equal quantity" of wine. That is a very impressive display of wealth, because wine was very scarce and hard to make. If you wanted wine, a "drink from the gods", then it had to be imported from the mountains (55). The cost of transporting wine down from the mountains to the land made it so much more expensive than beer, so it is called an "exotic foreign drink" in the Mesopotamian culture (55).  Mainly, wine was used for religion when available.

The King Ashurnaspiral was not only extremely wealthy, but his wealth literally grew on trees. He had his own garden, like I mentioned earlier, which contained vines "intertwined with trees" (57).

Wine was definitely a trend, but its origins are "lost in pre-history" (57). It is so ancient that many just called it a "myth or a legend" (57)
.  Here is a picture of the kings garden and his vines intertwined with trees.

Fri. 1-30-15 30 A History of World in 6 Glasses

Keila Delgado

World History G

Hello! For my 30 minute reading, I continued to learn about the importance of beverages throughout history from the book, "A History of World in 6 Glasses" by Tom Standage. In many history classes, we are limited to studying the fundamentals of what shaped the world, but never truly looking into any of the small things which impact greatly. For example, beverages. Beverages contributed into the shaping of society, tradition, and culture so much. There are six drinks in particular- "beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola"(2). Each drink is basically symbolizing a current time period that it had trend on. 

The first cities in the world were in Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was called "the land between the streams"(24).  This was due to the fact that it was placed in the middle of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The people who lived in these cities were there because they wanted to "be near religious or trading centers"(25) and many other factors. With this growth of civilization, meaning "living in cities"(25), Egypt and its cities grew to become the world's largest. "Agricultural surplus" made a particular effect in the cities, especially because so many people and things depended on it. Agricultural surplus made grain possible. With grain, came the ability to produce ones own food and diet. It was also sort of like "edible money"(26), and it came in both solid and liquid forms, as bread and beer.

This Picture is of a gathering in Egypt. They are all enjoying the food and beer that has brought them together.

Of course, there was the possibility of drunkness, but it seemed to have done nothing to "undermine the equation of beer drinking" with civilization (27). In the writings of Mesopotamians, they are called "playful" and "humorous"(27). Beer was very important to Egyptians culture, too. It is mentioned in documents from the 3rd Dynasty, which began in "2650 BCE". One neat Egyptian tale says that beer" saves humankind from destruction" (28). The story is explained when you look into Ra, the sun god, who learned that mankind was the punishment. In the end, Hathor becomes the goddess of beer and saves humankind. 

This photo is of Hathor; the goddess of beer.

Not everyone was pleased with beer, however. In contrast to the laid back Mesopotamians, Egyptian texts "copied out by apprentice scribes" showed a strong disliking toward intoxication (30). Still, it was an important item to most of them. Without it, no meal was complete. It very much defined the drink of the first civilizations.