SC - Archaeologists Recreate Famous King's Entombed Meal

[Korrin S DaArdain]

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/midas_beer000920.html
Midas' Golden Grog
Archaeologists Recreate Famous King's Entombed Meal 

   
By Deborah Scoblionkov

P H I L A D E L P H I A, Sept. 20 - Science may never produce the nectar
of
the gods but a team of U.S. archaeologists has managed to recreate the
golden grog of the legendary King Midas.
     "King Midas's Golden Elixir" sparkles like champagne and tastes like
hard cider. And it is about as close as the modern world is likely to get
to
the brew Midas and his ancient people, the Phrygians, made by mixing
fermented grape juice with beer, honey mead, herbs and spices 2,700 years
ago in central Turkey. 
Recipe From Funeral Feast
"At first we wondered what kind of terrible beverage this would have
been,"
said University of Pennsylvania archaeological chemist Patrick McGovern,
sighing with relief after sampling the golden-hued elixir. "But it's
eminently drinkable."
     With help from a Delaware microbrewer, the university's Museum of
Archaeology and Anthropology has sought to recreate the Midas libation
from
leftovers of the great king's funeral feast, which scientists discovered
after unearthing his Iron Age tomb near Ankara.
     "It was like an Irish wake," explained McGovern, who was the
project's
senior researcher.
     Penn archaeologists have been excavating the site of ancient
Phrygian
capital Gordion, legendary home of the Gordion knot, since 1950. In 1957,
they discovered the wooden tomb of Midas complete with his skeleton.
     Now university officials hope to turn Midas' famous golden touch to
good use, using the elixir to promote a lavish banquet at the museum
featuring his funeral feast's entree of barbecued lamb stewed with herbs,
lentils, olive oil, honey and wine. 

Museum Feast Costs $150
"A Feast Fit for King Midas," a benefit for Penn's Molecular Archaeology
Program, will kick off an exhibition of the tomb's artifacts on Saturday
evening with tickets costing up to $150 a person. Museum caterers are
also
marketing the "feast" concept to private groups for their functions.
     "When financial institutions, corporations and other groups want to
bring a 'golden touch' to an evening with business or civic associates,
we'll be ready," said Bruce Nichols, president of Museum Catering
Company.
     According to legend, King Midas was living in a rose-garden palace
in
the mountains of Macedonia when the god Dionysus granted him his wish to
turn everything he touched to gold. Midas soon realized his wish came
true
even for food and drink and pleaded to be set free of the wish.
     This plea Dionysus also granted, but on condition that Midas wash in
the river Pactolus after crossing into Asia, where he was adopted by
childless Phrygian King Gordius. Scientists say the Phrygians were
Indo-Europeans who crossed the Hellespont from Greece just before 1000
B.C.
and broke the power of the Hittites in Asia Minor. 

Beer or Bread?
Far from being a greedy fool, Midas was known as warrior king "Mita" to
the
neighboring Assyrians and ruled Phrygia at the height of its power. He
died
a natural death at the age of 60 or 65 around 700 B.C., about the time
that
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were being set down in writing by the Greeks.
     Scientists say Midas' unusual drink is important because the same
grog
has been found at Greek archaeological sites dating back to Minoan Crete
and
the Bronze Age City of Mycenae, whose mythical King Agamemnon led the
Greeks
against Troy.
     The fact that the Phrygians drank such a concoction reinforces the
scientific theory that they were of European ancestry, like the Greeks,
and
not kin to their Middle Eastern neighbors, who had already been drinking
resinated wine for 5,000 years by the time Midas ascended the throne.
Wine
did not emerge as a stand-alone libation in Europe until classical times.
     The role of beer in ancient society has been a controversial one
among
scientists, who debate whether it was beer or bread that enticed early
man
to settle down and plant grain, thereby laying the foundation for
civilisation.
     Its recreation, even for fund-raising purposes, offers
archaeologists
insight into "how things might have been done in antiquity," said
McGovern.
     In 1988, Penn museum officials and Fritz Maytag of the Anchor Steam
Brewery founded the Sumerian Beer Project and recreated an ancient beer
based on a 3,800-year-old recipe found in a hymn to the Sumerian beer
goddess, Ninkasi. Named in honor of the goddess, the Sumerian beer's
first
and only public tasting was held in 1993.
     McGovern said the Midas project marks the first time a professional
brewer has recreated an ancient drink solely from the results of chemical
analysis. In this case, it was the analysis of yellow-colored dregs
discovered in drinking cauldrons and cups left behind in the tomb by
Midas'
mourners. 

How Much Alcohol?
"I was scared out of my pants," said Sam Calagione, whose Dogfish Head
Craft
Brewery of Lewes, Del., was chosen for the task. "There was no benchmark
or
precedent for this project - anyone who'd had a benchmark for this brew
was
long dead."
     Last April, he assembled the ingredients - white Muscat grapes from
California, English barley, thyme honey from Italy and Indian saffron -
for
a "test" batch of "Origin Ale."
     Calagione wondered at what level of alcohol the ancients drank their
punch, settling for a comfortable middle ground between beer and wine:
7.5
percent.
     At what temperature should the juice be fermented? Figuring that the
ancients had no refrigeration, he allowed the mixture to ferment at
ambient
temperatures, "sacrificing mellowness for authenticity," he explained.
     The "test" batch produced two kegs - one for advance sampling and
the
other for the King Midas feast. It may well turn out to be the only batch
that Calagione will ever make.
     "It's just too expensive to market commercially," he said -
appropriately worth its weight in gold. 

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