All cultures depend on creating, transforming, reaching a higher level of complexity. And there are no cultures in the world as long-lasting—and at the same time constantly evolving—as cultures of fermenting anaerobic bacteria.

Did fermentation create civilization? Yes. At least, it was there from the very beginning, going by the general premise that the symbolic “exit from the caves” and the associated development of cultivation occurred between 15,000 and 11,000 BCE. People were eating wild grains and the flours made from them, but they were also fermenting the grains. The phenomenon of “rising” bread emerged from the fermentation of wild yeast, but anthropologists agree that in several of the most important “cradles of civilization” (Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, and Mexico), beverages were the first things to be fermented. The earliest records come from the Middle East, from the times of the Natufian culture, named after the archaeological site in Wadi Natuf in what is now Palestine.

Researchers (Robert Dudley, Patrick E. McGovern, and Elisa Guerra-Doce, for example) have long suggested that Homo sapiens benefited from fermentation—our ancestors ate overripe wild fruits, so the alcohol contained in them must have been a familiar phenomenon. However, the validity of such claims is hard to prove—for one thing, the alcohol level in fermented fruit is too low to leave traces in the body. Hard evidence is required, preferably something that would confirm the purpose of human-engineered fermentation. And this evidence exists.

First Sips

In 1956, the Raqefet Cave was discovered in Mount Carmel. This find remains a reference point for anthropologists, paleontologists, paleobotanists, and palynologists studying ancient pollen. The breakthrough moment in research on the history of fermentation came in 2018, when the remains of a deliberately made product were found in the cave—alcohol-containing pulp made from fermented barley and wheat grains. It was located in a clay pot, near two mortars used for grinding grains. The discovery was dated to between 13,700 and 11,700 BCE, confirming existing theories