Hundreds of whisky and gin bottles found at remains of British army barracks near town of Ramle

Archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of whisky and gin bottles at the remains of a first world war British army barracks in the centre of Israel.

The Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement that the camp, near the town of Ramle, was used by an expeditionary force under Gen Edmund Allenby for about nine months from November 1917 during a pause in the campaign against the Turkish army in Palestine. </s> Hundreds of whisky and gin bottles found at remains of British army barracks near town of Ramle

Archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of whisky and gin bottles at the remains of a first world war British army barracks in the centre of Israel.

The Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement that the camp, near the town of Ramle, was used by an expeditionary force under Gen Edmund Allenby for about nine months from November 1917 during a pause in the campaign against the Turkish army in Palestine.

The statement quoted excavation director Ron Toueg as saying the bottles were found among crockery shards and broken cutlery in a rubbish tip.

“About 70% of the waste that was discarded in the refuse pit was liquor bottles,” Toueg said. “It seems that the soldiers took advantage of the respite given them to release the tension by frequently drinking alcohol. The discovery of this site and the finds in it provide us with an opportunity for a glimpse of the unwritten part of history, and to reconstruct for the first time the everyday life and leisure of the soldiers.”

Pictures of the bottles showed several marked as Gordon’s Gin and Dewar’s Whisky.

Researcher Brigitte Ouahnouna said it was the first such discovery in Israel. “It is a fascinating testimony of the everyday life of the British military camp a century ago,” the statement quoted her as saying. </s> The Israel Antiquities Authority said Wednesday it was excavating 250,000-year-old flint tools when the archaeologists stumbled upon hundreds of liquor bottles near a building where British soldiers were garrisoned in 1917.

Excavation director Ron Toueg says uniform buttons, belt buckles and riding equipment were found near the city of Ramle in addition to the bottles of gin, whiskey and wine. He said it offered a glimpse into "the everyday life and leisure of the soldiers."

The items appear to have belonged to members of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force commanded by General Edmund Allenby.

Explore further: Israeli archaeologists find inscription of name from Bible </s> In a search for antiquities, Israeli archaeologists have unearthed a far more modern find — century-old liquor bottles that belonged to British soldiers in World War I.

The Israel Antiquities Authority said Wednesday it was excavating 250,000-year-old flint tools when the archaeologists stumbled upon hundreds of liquor bottles near a building where British soldiers were garrisoned in 1917.

Excavation director Ron Toueg says uniform buttons, belt buckles and riding equipment were found near the city of Ramle in addition to the bottles of gin, whiskey and wine. He said it offered a glimpse into "the everyday life and leisure of the soldiers."

The items appear to have belonged to members of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force commanded by General Edmund Allenby. </s> Israeli archaeologists have found hundreds of glass bottles at the site of a First World War British army barracks.

The remains of the drinking session were found during excavations for a new road near the central city of Ramle, where soldiers under the command of Field Marshal Edmund Allenby were garrisoned in 1917.

The camp, based around a tall building, was occupied for about nine months from November 1917 during a pause in the campaign against the Turkish army in Palestine.

Workers uncovered a waste pit filled with cutlery, broken plates and the giant haul of empty glass bottles, including Gordon's gin and John Dewar's whisky.

Excavation director Ron Toueg said: 'About 70 percent of the waste that was discarded in the refuse pit were liquor bottles.

'It seems that the soldiers took advantage of the respite given them to release the tension by frequently drinking alcohol.'

Mr Toueg said the find gave a unique insight into the everyday lives of the soldiers while they were away from the battlefield.

He said: 'The discovery of this site and the finds in it provide us with an opportunity for a glimpse of the unwritten part of history, and reconstruct for the first time the everyday life and leisure of the soldiers.'

The soldiers were part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, captured the land around Ramle in November 1917 and went into Jerusalem the next month.

Researcher Brigitte Ouahnouna said it was the first such find uncovered in Israel.

She added: 'It is a fascinating testimony of the everyday life of the British military camp a century ago.' </s> (JTA) – Hundreds of liquor bottles whose contents were consumed by British soldiers during World War I were uncovered near Ramla in central Israel.

The bottles were excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in preparation for the construction of a new highway, the IAA announced Wednesday. They were found near a building where British soldiers were garrisoned during the war.

Also found in the area were 250,000-year-old flint tools.

The uncovered building where the bottles were found was originally used for agricultural purposes during the Ottoman period and converted by the British for military use, according to Ron Toueg, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The intact bottom floor was a barracks for the soldiers. Uniform buttons, belt buckles, parts of riding equipment and other artifacts that were the property of the British soldiers were discovered in the excavated building, according to the IAA.

“The place where the soldiers discarded debris was revealed just a few meters from the building,” Toueg said. “We were surprised to discover that along with broken crockery and cutlery there was an enormous number of soft drink and liquor bottles. In fact, about 70 percent of the waste that was discarded in the refuse pit was liquor bottles. It seems that the soldiers took advantage of the respite given them to release the tension by frequently drinking alcohol.”

The glass bottles had once contained mainly wine, beer, soda and alcoholic beverages such as gin, liquor and whisky. </s> Israeli archaeologists digging near the city of Ramla are used to uncovering flint tools and Palaeolithic remains.

But when they began excavating land that is about to be used for a new motorway they made a significantly less dry discovery.

Hundreds of bottles of gin, wine, beer and other alcohols left behind by British troops during the First World War were dug out of the dry earth. </s> OCCUPIED AL-QUDS: Archaeologists have found what they believe is the world´s oldest site for alcohol production, a study said on Thursday, adding the beer-like beverage may have been served in ceremonies some 13,000 years ago.

The site is located in the Raqefet cave south of Haifa in today´s northern Israel that also served as a burial site for the Natufian people. "If we´re right, this is the earliest testament in the world to alcohol production of any kind," Dani Nadel, an archaeology professor at the University of Haifa and one of the authors of the article published in the "Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports", told AFP.

"We know what the Natufians did in the cave. They buried some of their dead on a platform of flowers and plants, and apparently also produced a soup-like liquid, an alcoholic drink." According to Nadel, the liquid was "different than today´s beer" and probably much weaker, "but fermented".

Three small pits, or mortars, were discovered that had been carved into the surface of the Raqefet cave. Two of the small stone mortars were for storing grains, and the third for pounding and brewing grains ahead of fermentation, the study found.

The mortars were some 40-60 centimetres deep. The location of the mortars in the burial caves implies the drink was "apparently connected to the ceremonies, or some sort of social event," Nadel said.

According to the article, published with researchers from Stanford University in the United States, the beer-making innovations "predated the appearance of domesticated cereals by several millennia in the Near East."

The Natufians were hunter-gatherers who lived in the eastern Mediterranean region 15,000 to 11,500 years ago, and began settling down rather than roving from place to place. They were "the last in the region who lived in a different way than the villages we´re familiar with," Nadel said. The efforts put into producing the alcoholic beverage showed the importance of the drink in the Natufian culture, he noted. </s> Archaeologists have unearthed what they believe is the world's oldest site for alcohol production.

The ancient drinking hole is located in the Raqefet cave, south of Haifa in modern-day northern Israel – a site that also served as a burial for the Natufian people.

Evidence suggests that thousands of years ago, this group of hunter-gatherers in the eastern Mediterranean were fond of drinking beer during celebrations.

Archaeologists believe a weak, beer-like beverage was served in ceremonies starting 13,000 years ago.

HOW DID THE NATUFIAN PEOPLE MAKE BEER? The hunter-gatherers of the Natufian Culture, which flourished in modern-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria between 14,500 and 11,500 years ago, were some of the first people to build permanent homes and tend to crops. Evidence suggests that thousands of years ago this group of hunter-gatherers in the eastern Mediterranean were quite the beer connoisseurs. Scientists believe that the Natufians used a three-stage brewing process. First, starch of wheat or barley would be turned into malt. This happens by germinating the grains in water to then be drained, dried and stored. Then, the malt would be mashed and heated. Finally, it would be left to ferment with airborne wild yeast.

'If we're right, this is the earliest testament in the world to alcohol production of any kind,' Dani Nadel, an archaeology professor at the University of Haifa told AFP.

'We know what the Natufians did in the cave. They buried some of their dead on a platform of flowers and plants, and apparently also produced a soup-like liquid, an alcoholic drink.'

According to Dr Nadel, the liquid was 'different than today's beer' and probably much weaker, 'but fermented'.

They discovered three small pits, or mortars, that had been carved into the surface of the Raqefet cave, according to the paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Two of the small stone mortars were for storing grains, while a third was used for pounding and brewing grains ahead of fermentation, the study found.

The mortars were some 40-60 centimetres (one-two foot) deep.

The location of the mortars in the burial caves implies the drink was 'apparently connected to the ceremonies, or some sort of social event,' Dr Nadel said.

According to the paper, published with researchers from Stanford University, the beer-making innovations 'predated the appearance of domesticated cereals by several millennia in the Near East.'

'This discovery indicates that making alcohol was not necessarily a result of agricultural surplus production, but it was developed for ritual purposes and spiritual needs, at least to some extent, prior to agriculture,' said one of the lead researchers Li Liu, a professor of Chinese archaeology at Stanford.

The earliest bread remains to date were also recently recovered from the Natufian site in east Jordan.

Those could be from 11,600 to 14,600 years old. The beer finding reported in the latest paper could be from 11,700 to 13,700 years old.

Ancient beer is far from what we drink today.

It was most likely a multi-ingredient concoction like porridge or thin gruel, said Jiajing Wang, a doctoral student in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and a co-author on the paper.

Researchers unearthed residual remains of starch and microscopic plant particles known as phytolith, which are typical in the transformation of wheat and barley to alcoholic drinks.

They believe that the Natufians used a three-stage brewing process.

First, starch of wheat or barley would be turned into malt. This happens by germinating the grains in water to then be drained, dried and stored.

Then, the malt would be mashed and heated. Finally, it would be left to ferment with airborne wild yeast.

The hunter-gatherers of the Natufian Culture, which flourished in modern-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria between 14,500 and 11,500 years ago, were some of the first people to build permanent homes and tend to crops.

These innovations were crucial for the subsequent emergence of agriculture during the Neolithic era.

Previous research had suggested the centre of this culture was the Mount Carmel and Galilee region, and that it spread from here to other parts of the region.

However, more recent research has challenged this 'core region' theory, with excavations uncovering a well-preserved Natufian site, where they uncovered a large collection of charred plant remains.

They were 'the last in the region who lived in a different way than the villages we're familiar with,' Dr Nadel said.

The efforts put into producing the alcoholic beverage showed the importance of the drink in the Natufian culture, he noted.
Near the town of Ramle, Israeli archeologists uncover hundreds of gin and whiskey bottles dating back to the First World War at the site of a former British Army barracks.