Dinesh's photos with the keyword: Uncorking the Past

Why have cultures around the world had a millennia-long love affair with wine? My short answer then was that alcohol has been the universal drug, and that wine provides the highest concentration of this simple organic compound (ethanol) available in nature. Humans throughout history have been astounded by alcohol’s effects, whether it is imbibed as a beverage or applied to the skin. The health benefits are obvious -- alcohol relieves, pain, stops infection, and seems to cure diseases. Its psychological and social benefits are equally apparent -- alcohol eases the difficulties of everyday life, lubricates social exchanges, and contributes to a joy in being alive. Briefly put, alcoholic beverages are unique among all the drugs that bumans and our early hominid ancestors have exploited on this planet for more than four million years. Their preeminence and universal allure -- what might be called their biological, social, and religious imperatives -- make them significant in understanding the development of our species and its cultures. ~ xi / xii

The tumulus burial of a Celtic prince at Hochdorf, Germany, ca 525 B.C., is uncannily reminiscent of the Midas Tumuls royal burial at Gordion, Turkey, of two centuries earlier. The burial chamber is enclosed in a double wall of logs, and a single male laid out in his finery, accompanied by a massive “claudron” and vessels for drinking and eating at a final funerary feast. Instead of “phrygian grog,” the 500 liter claudron had originally been filled with a beverage dominated by honey mead. Courtesy of J. Biel and Dr. Simone Stork / Keltenmuseum. Hochdorf.

This magnificent Neolithic rock painting, dating from the third millennium B.C., or earlier was discovered by the explorer Henri Lhote in the Tassili n’Ajjer Mountains of the central Sahara Desert. Among their herds, nomads appear to engage in a drinking ceremony. A man (kneeling at left), helped by possibly his father or an elder (seated at left) drinks from a large decorated jar using long straw. From encampment to encampment, cereal beer and its technology made their way from east to west across Africa. Image @ Pierre Colombel/CORBIS

Red crowned cranes perform their mating dance on the frozen plains of Manchuria. the two dozen flutes made from the early Neolithic site of Jiahu were exclusively made from one of the wing bones (the ulna) of this bird Photography @ by James G. parker