Dying for a mug of Nordic grog

"...honey, bog cranberry, lingonberry, bog myrtle, yarrow, juniper, birch tree resin, and cereals including wheat, barley and/or rye —and sometimes, grape wine imported from southern or central Europe." According to chemical analyses done on the residues on cups and strainers found in graves from Denmark to Sweden, those were the common ingredients of Nordic "grog", a drink that dates back as far as 1500 BC.

Given our own modern taste for beer, wine, ciders and various other alcoholic beverages, we shouldn't find it astonishing that biomolecular archaeologists like Dr. Pat McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology have been finding traces of them on shards of pottery and in the bottoms of ancient cups for years.  From an archaeology of death perspective, however, what are we to make of artifacts such as strainers, wine kits imported from southern Europe, jugs of "grog" or mead, and cups that were clearly used primarily to imbibe these drinks turning up prominently in graves across Scandinavia? 

"Egtved Girl" is thought to have been a priestess. She was buried in a an oak trunk coffin sometime between 1300 and 1500 BC with a birch-bark bucket of grog at her feet.  Credit: National Museum of Denmark

Ancient drink set found in Sweden dating to the 1st century AD.  Imported from Rome, analysis indicates this set was used to make grog. Credit: Nylen and Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm

Nylen and Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm

Nylen and Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm

In the absence of a written record, it's extremely difficult to determine what meaning an artifact found in a grave held either for the individual it was buried with or the culture that produced it and ultimately placed it with the body. Does a knife or sword buried with a body always mean that person was a warrior?  Do remains of a woman found griping a strainer and the association of wine kits with female graves mean women typically made and served drinks like grog? Self images and gender roles are probably factors here, and they can at best only be determined probabilistically. 

However, when it comes to cups and jugs containing grog residue, these have been found in both male and female Scandinavian burial sites . This may have some religious significance.  On the other hand, the presence of these artifacts may simply mean, then as now, people appreciated the socially lubricating qualities of a good drink and memories of the dead were strongly linked to social gatherings where grog played a central role.  As Freud supposedly said, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar".  Since the people burying these cups, jugs, and buckets along with their dead didn't write down why they were doing it, we will likely never know exactly what was going through their minds at the time.

Wine was occasionally imported from the south to add to grog as an extra ingredient.  It was probably as a consequence of this commerce that at least a few Greeks and Romans became familiar with the drink.  It doesn't appear they were too concerned with any, to them, unusual religious or other cultural roles grog played for their northern European neighbors.  However, they did notice its taste and they didn't consider it very savory.  The blog Live Science points out the criticism of these Greeks and Romans may provide evidence of the first wine snobs; they thought grog tasted like "barley rotted in water". 

Regardless of what the ancient Greeks and Romans thought, or what grog meant to its primary consumers, you can decide for yourself what you think of the beverage.  Relying in part upon the analyses conducted on containers found in Nordic graves going back as far as 3,500 years, the Deleware based brewery Dogfish Head has created its version of the recipe.  Marketed under the name Kvasir, Dogfish's recreation of Nordic grog is just the latest in its line of ancient brews available for those literally seeking a taste of drinks that frequently inspired our ancestors to take full jars and buckets to the grave with them.  Perhaps in the near future the University of Victoria will be adding an Archaeology of Beer course to the menu as well.

Ancient texts written by Greeks and Romans proved that southern Europeans were among the first wine snobs — these authors dismissed Northern beverages as "barley rotted in water." - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/42559-nordic-grog-ancient-alcoholic-beverage.html#sthash.hDhfsL41.dpuf

Ancient texts written by Greeks and Romans proved that southern Europeans were among the first wine snobs — these authors dismissed Northern beverages as "barley rotted in water." - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/42559-nordic-grog-ancient-alcoholic-beverage.html#sthash.hDhfsL41.dpuf

Ancient texts written by Greeks and Romans proved that southern Europeans were among the first wine snobs — these authors dismissed Northern beverages as "barley rotted in water." - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/42559-nordic-grog-ancient-alcoholic-beverage.html#sthash.hDhfsL41.dpuf

Ancient texts written by Greeks and Romans proved that southern Europeans were among the first wine snobs — these authors dismissed Northern beverages as "barley rotted in water." - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/42559-nordic-grog-ancient-alcoholic-beverage.html#sthash.hDhfsL41.dpuf

Sources:
Live Science, Ancient Nordic Grog Intoxicated the Elite: http://www.livescience.com/42559-nordic-grog-ancient-alcoholic-beverage.html
Live Science images of grog related artifacts uncovered in ancient Nordic graves and elsewhere: http://www.livescience.com/42556-graves-nordic-grog.html

AlphaGalileo, New evidence of "Nordic grog" discovered in Scandinavia: http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=138057&CultureCode=en

Atlantic Monthly, The Archaeology of Beer: Dogfish Head’s ancient, hybrid brews embody a past before ale and wine became separate categories:  http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/01/the-archaeology-of-beer/355732/