Pyramid builders got beer rations

Records from Egyptian worker communities show that beer was a daily staple, issued as part of rations. It was thick and low in alcohol compared with modern beer.

Context

Ancient Egyptians made beer from barley or emmer wheat, usually by baking partly malted dough and mixing it with water so that it fermented. The result was cloudy, nutritious and relatively low in alcohol, and it was consumed by adults and children alike as part of ordinary meals.

Evidence for rations comes from the workers' settlements near the Giza plateau, where archaeologists found bakeries, breweries and food remains, and from administrative texts that record regular issues of bread and beer to labourers. Researchers generally conclude that the pyramid workforce was organised into crews and fed from state stores, rather than being unpaid slaves.

The dating of about 2500 BCE refers to the Fourth Dynasty, when the Giza pyramids were built. Exact ration sizes vary between periods and sites, so the story is best understood as a general pattern of paid food rations, with beer as one important item, rather than a fixed daily amount.

Beer's importance also shows in religion and medicine of the time, since it appears in offerings to gods and in many recipes recorded on later medical papyri. Archaeologists also treat the ration idea cautiously.