For Immediate Release Media contacts: The Field Museum Greg Borzo 312/665-7106 gborzo@fieldmuseum.org Burning Down the Brewery Elite women brewed a beer-like drink at ancient Wari site - the first diplomatic outpost between Andean empires CHICAGO—An extensive Wari imperial outpost on the top of a sacred mountain in what is now southern Peru was ceremoniously evacuated and partially burned to the ground 1,000 years ago, Field Museum archaeologists and their colleagues from the University of Florida and the Contisuyo Museum in Peru report in the next issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The last building to be torched as the Cerro Baúl colony was abandoned was a sophisticated brewery with a 1,800-liter capacity – no micro-brewery, even for its time. The elaborate abandonment of the colony began with the brewing of a final batch of chicha, a fermented alcoholic drink that played a central role in the Wari culture. A week later, the residents drank the chicha in an extensive feast and ceremony. As a sacrifice to the gods, the colony’s religious and political leaders threw 28 precious ceramic vessels into the conflagration – presumably after quaffing the brew. “Chicha, which is often made from maize, was at the heart of this culture, and this is one of the oldest and largest pre-Inca breweries ever discovered in the Americas,” said Patrick Ryan Williams, Curator of Anthropology at The Field Museum and co-author of the research report. “Our analyses indicate that this specialty brew was a high-class affair. Corn and Peruvian pepper-tree berries were used to make the beer, which was drunk from elaborate beakers up to half a gallon in volume.” Chicha was so important to the Wari that it was brewed by a group of select, high-status women. Archaeologists were able to conclude this from the large number of shawl pins found in the three-room brewery – but conspicuously absent from other areas of the expansive ruins. These elite brewmistresses were probably selected for their beauty or nobility. The Inca, who followed in the Wari’s footsteps, continued this practice centuries later: Their chicha was also brewed by an elite class of women who were cloistered in “houses of chosen women.” “In Inca society, wealth and power depended on the knowledge and skill of elite women,” said Donna Nash, Adjunct Curator at The Field Museum, Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-author of the report. Inca gatherings large and small, sacred and politically crucial, depended on the exchange of valued gifts and the hospitality of the emperor, especially on offering copious amounts of chicha, she explained. The chosen women and other Incan royalty produced fine shirts elaborated with heraldic symbols of state office and social rank, the most prestigious of all gifts. They also brewed the beer. “Without cloth and beer, these ancient empires could not have functioned,” Nash said. Therefore, women were crucial to the ancient empires of the south-central Andes.” The researchers report on their findings in “Burning down the brewery: Establishing and evacuating an ancient imperial colony at Cerro Baúl, Peru,” an embargoed research report to be published on-line Nov. 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It will be the cover story in the subsequent print version of PNAS The lead author is Michael Moseley, Distinguished Professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville, as well as Research Associate and former Curator at The Field Museum. “There are lots of other imperial Wari sites, but they are all plunked down in the wide open flat land. This is the only one that’s high on a mountain,” Moseley said. Continue>>