Mesopotamian digital scrapbook

     Mesopotamia is perhaps the most influential ancient civilization in terms of modern culture. One of the lasting creations of Mesopotamia is beer. Beer was discovered around the beginning of the agrarian era when humans first started gathering cereal grains to store. They would leave these grains in water to created a kind of gruel. When this gruel was left out to ferment, beer was the result. Beer is still a very common beverage in most places, and is still used for some of the same purposes that it was 15 years ago. For example, beer is still the universal symbol of hospitality. In ancient Mesopotamia, beer was typically drunk from a vat by two or more people with straws (see picture below). Beer was also a symbol of friendship and a means of celebration in ancient Mesopotamia. This is still the case today. If people want to celebrate, one of the most common things to do is to go out for drinks. Beer was also a huge commodity which was traded amongst regions, again similar to how it is used today. In modern times, beer is brewed in places like Belgium and Germany and shipped all over the world. The only fundamental difference is one of scale.