The chemical analysis of fragments from a Bronge Aze drinking vessel in France today found that the early Celts had their own way of getting drunk by mimicking the Ancient Greek drinking culture.
The findings published in the journal PLOS ONE shed light on their drinking that suggests they used both important and locally made drinking apparatus to enjoy Greek wine and local beer. Beer drinking depended on social class and occasion with the warriors drinking millet bear and elites drinking ale made from barley or wheat.
Archaeologists have assumed that early Celts in Europe imported fancy Mediterranean wine and ceramics to imitate Greeks around 2,000 years ago. But the Greeks would have been shocked to find out that the Celts drank beer from the vessels, a drink which Greeks found to be low brow.
But Professor Stockhammer says that early Celts had their own drinking customs that differed from the Greek ones that they were thought to have mimicked. For instance, wine-sodden feasting was not a custom which Greek women took part in, however Celtic women of high rank would drink in the open with men.
Ancient Greek men drank wine at ‘symposiums’ where respectable women were not allowed, however the Celtic elites not only allowed women to attend but there are indications that the women were serious drinkers.
To come to their conclusions, scientists analysed fragments of pottery vessels from four different locations at an early Celt settlement in France at Vix-Mont Lassois. They matched residue analyses with the type of vessels and where they were found to understand the social meaning of alcohol in Celtic society.
Fancy Greek pottery drinking vessels were found on the plateau where the elites lived. Craftspeople lived in the lower settlement and stored wine only in cooking utensils.
There was residue of beer but no evidence of wine in vessels that may have belonged to warriors who were probably stationed at the gate to the settlement.
Wine was only found outside the settlement near a religious site, and it may have been given in religious offering.
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