A & R Thursday

Last week’s coincidental co-postings of archaeology and redheads was fun, so I’ll keep it going. Who knows, maybe we can make something of this. After all, everybody loves ... archaeology! Um, this one might more properly be called anthropology ... the line blurs sometimes ... especially after a few beers!

Did Ancient Nubians Drink Beer As Medicine?

Ancient Brew Masters Tapped Antibiotic Secrets

ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2010) — A chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Nubians shows that they were regularly consuming tetracycline, most likely in their beer. The finding is the strongest evidence yet that the art of making antibiotics, which officially dates to the discovery of penicillin in 1928, was common practice nearly 2,000 years ago.

The research, led by Emory anthropologist George Armelagos and medicinal chemist Mark Nelson of Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

“We tend to associate drugs that cure diseases with modern medicine,” Armelagos says. “But it’s becoming increasingly clear that this prehistoric population was using empirical evidence to develop therapeutic agents. I have no doubt that they knew what they were doing.”

Armelagos is a bioarcheologist and an expert on prehistoric and ancient diets. In 1980, he discovered what appeared to be traces of tetracycline in human bones from Nubia dated between A.D. 350 and 550, populations that left no written record. The ancient Nubian kingdom was located in present-day Sudan, south of ancient Egypt.

Armelagos and his fellow researchers later tied the source of the antibiotic to the Nubian beer. The grain used to make the fermented gruel contained the soil bacteria streptomyces, which produces tetracycline. A key question was whether only occasional batches of the ancient beer contained tetracycline, which would indicate accidental contamination with the bacteria.

Even the tibia and skull belonging to a 4-year-old were full of tetracycline, suggesting that they were giving high doses to the child to try and cure him of illness, Nelson says. “The bones of these ancient people were saturated with tetracycline, showing that they had been taking it for a long time”
...
The first of the modern day tetracyclines was discovered in 1948. It was given the name auereomycin, after the Latin word “aerous,” which means containing gold. “Streptomyces produce a golden colony of bacteria, and if it was floating on a batch of beer, it must have look pretty impressive to ancient people who revered gold,” Nelson theorizes.
...
The ancient Egyptians and Jordanians used beer to treat gum disease and other ailments, Armelagos says, adding that the complex art of fermenting antibiotics was probably widespread in ancient times, and handed down through generations.

So, perhaps the next time you feel a bit under the weather you should just have a glass of beer. I’d recommend a nice Irish Red ... (click pics)

This is (Rebecca) Renee Oldstead, who is actually from Texas, not Ireland. At 21 and a few months, she is a television actress and a jazz singer. She’s got one of those torch singer voices, call it margarine and sugar with a dash of cayenne if you’d call Diana Krall’s (Mrs. Elvis Costello) voice sweet butter and honey. She’s a little breathy, but not at all like that Jacintha woman who practically swallows the microphone. Besides, it’s easy to tell she’s an actress and a singer, since many of the tens of thousands of pictures of her on the internet have her holding a microphone and dressed to show off nearly all of her rather damned impressive assets. Not that I’m complaining. If the young thing wants to get pneumonia, that’s her business.

I don’t know. I don’t usually go for this kind of look. Something in my head says it’s puppy fat. Granted, that’s strategic puppy fat, but careful analysis will show that she isn’t even an ounce too heavy. Not even one.  So I’m wrong. I’m learning to better appreciate the softer look. It works too.

Besides ... how could I bring myself to be critical of a person who enjoys life this much?

And that’s the end.

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