Inhabitants of Solnitsata near Provadia produced beer 6,500 years ago

This year, Bulgarian archaeologists found evidence that beer was produced at "Provadia-Solnitsata" (5600–4350 BC)-Europe's oldest salt-production and urban center. This was announced by the leader of the archaeological works, Academician Vasil Nikolov, who presented the team's summer findings to journalists, BTA reported.

According to Nikolov, this likely represents the earliest production of the beverage in the region and possibly in all of Europe. He noted that botanist Elena Marinova contributed to the discovery. A broken vessel was found containing wheat that had sprouted in the manner required to produce malt. The vessel was discovered in a house that had burned down. It was previously believed that beer production began during the Bronze Age in Western Asia and Egypt, but we now have the first evidence that beer was being made as early as 4500 BC, Nikolov said.

Archaeologists study the production complex of Provadia-Solnitsata, which operated millennia ago

Editor: Miglena Ivanova