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Ancient Pueblo Indians brewed their own brand of edible corn beer , a new study intimate , contradicting title that the group remained dry until their first encounter with the Europeans . archeologist late found that 800 - yr - old potsherds belong to the Pueblos of the American Southwest incorporate act of fermented residual typical in beer output . Before the breakthrough , historian thought a pocket of Pueblos in New Mexico did not have alcoholic beverage at all , despite being surrounded by other beer - fix kindred , until the Spanish arrived with grapes and wine-colored in the sixteenth century . The examination were done using a highly sensitive stage set of scanning engineering at Sandia National Laboratories , a U.S. governance facility that usually employs the gadgetry for national defence . Pueblo not a desert islandA thousand years ago , traditional Native American farming small town were already dissipate across parts of New Mexico , Arizona and northern Mexico , separate among several kindred including the Apache , Pueblo , Navajo and the Tarahumara . Many of the tribes living in Mexico and some in Arizona are love to have produce aweak beercalled tiswin , made by work kernel of corn , but no evidence has ever been found that the same thing happened in New Mexico . " There ’s been an artificial construct among archeologists working in New Mexico that no one had alcoholic beverage here until the Spanish brought grape and wine-colored . That ’s so counter - visceral . It does n’t make sense to me as a societal scientist that New Mexico would have been an island in pre - Columbian times , " say Glenna Dean , an archaeologist who come near Sandia Laboratories for help with her inquiry , which she comport through her small business Archeobotanical Services . examination get 800 - yr - old beer dregsTo test her intellection , Dean brought potsherd belong to ancient New Mexican Pueblos , pots from modern Tarahumaran groups where tiswin is still brewed and plenty in which Dean herself concoct thebrewto Sandia Laboratories for comparing . Sandia scientists analyzed the sample distribution using gun chromatography and mass spectrographic analysis , technologies that can identify the presence of organic compounds and are used in national security to detect chemical , biologic and other hazardous agent . Common , microscopic leftovers of alcoholic compounds were find across all three , said Sandia researcher Ted Borek , indicating that the ancient pots were likely used for the same purpose — fermentation — as the mod single . The outcome were give by Borek in a talk at a recent Materials Research Society group meeting in Boston .
" There appear to be body across the modern home brew and Tarahumaran pots , " Borek said , who cautioned that they " have not found that ‘ smoking gun ’ that definitely provides evidence of intentional fermentation . It ’s always potential that corn fermented in a pot without the intent of the owner . " More enquiry will be conduct on the pots to rule out inadvertent fermentation . Given the succeeder of Dean ’s experiment , mass spectrometry and gas chromatography are expected to be sought out for more archaeological studies at Sandia Laboratories , the scientists said .
Photo taken by Luis Cuellar. There are no usage restrictions for this photo.
