On November 3rd at Discovery World in Milwaukee Wisconsin, we brewed our second ancient ale of the season, a Mayan Maize Ale, as part of the adult education series “Ale Through the Ages: The Anthropology and Archaeology of Brewing” .

The recipe is inspired by what an alcoholic beverage may have tasted like in Central America over 1,000 years ago. Archaeological and Ethnographic evidence suggests that pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica brewed a fermented alcoholic beverage using corn and cacao as the primary ingredients. Spanish chroniclers described how the Yucatan Indians (descendants of the Maya) made a foaming drink from cacao and maize which was very savory and which they used to celebrate their feasts. This most recent ale of the ages is an attempt to recreate what these alcoholic beverages of ancient Mesoamerican may have tasted like.

Corn (Zea mays) or maize (a Spanish derivation of the Tiano word maiz) was first domesticated around 6000 B.P. (Before Present) in the Tehuacán Valley of Mexico. What initially began as a wild grass called teosinte, evolved into one of the most important staple crops on the planet. Today there are thousands of varieties of corn grown worldwide.

There are many modern examples of brewing corn beer throughout the Western Hemisphere. Most often it is called Chicha, where the traditional method involves the maize being chewed and then spit into a pot or bowl. Natural enzymes in the mouth aid in converting the starch in the corn into fermentable sugars. This mash is then boiled and let to naturally ferment. Today, the Tarahumara indigenous people of Chihuahua in northern Mexico regularly brew a corn beer called Tesguino, which is consumed in large quantities during ceremonial occasions. While we did not spit in our Mayan Maize Ale, a small batch of authentic chicha was made following the traditional method.

Archaeological Examples of brewing with Maize and Cacao in South and Central America

Recent archaeological excavations by a team from The Field Museum in Chicago and The University of Florida uncovered the remains of a brewing complex on the mountain top site of Cerro Baúl in southern Peru. The complex was built by the Wari culture (AD 600-1000) in which stones supported a row of 12 large pottery jars capable of holding 150 liters of liquid each. It is believed that the brewery was capable of producing hundreds of gallons of corn-based beer per week. Further evidence suggests that women were the primary brewers at the site, based on the presence of at least 10 shawl pins that were found on the floor of the brewery, which was ritually burned down around 1000 years ago.

Archaeologists from Cornell University working at the site of Puerto Escondido in northern Honduras have recently found the earliest evidence of drinking fermented cacao. Chemical analyses performed on the pottery sherds, some of which were over 3,000 years old, that recovered from the site contained residues of Theobromine, a conclusive fingerprint that fermented cacao was once served in these jars. It is assumed that this chocolate based beer may have reached 5% alcohol by volume.

November 10th marked the bottling of the Mayan Maize Ale. We added a bit more cocoa powder and and 3/4 cups of corn syrup to the batch prior to bottling. The bottling went extremely efficiently, resulting in a total of some 60 12oz. bottles. It should be ready for consumption by mid December and ought to have a distinct maize flavor with a delicious chocolate body with a hint of serrano pepper on the end. Final Alcohol by volume is anticipated to be around 5.5%.

October 7th 2009 marked the second season of Discovery Worlds exploration and indulgence into the ancient tradition of brewing beer, during an adult program called “Ale through the Ages: The Anthropology and Archaeology of Brewing”. An enthusiastic group of adults were on hand to witness and partake in the brewing exercise, while enjoying a variety of beers generously donated by Lakefront Brewery Inc.

The newest experimental ale resurrected from the depths of brewing history, is a German style rye-based ale we call a Rhineland Roggenbier. While beer production has been a human innovation for at least 10,000 years in parts of eastern and western Asia, central Europe and Germany in particular were late comers in comparison. For example, a burial excavated in 1935 near the village of Kasendorf, in northern Bavaria contained a male individual from the Celtic Hallstatt period, ca. 800 BCE. Among the artifacts buried with him was an amphora-shaped vessel with the remnants of a black wheat beer inside of it. Thus far, this marks the earliest archaeological evidence of beer consumption in Germany.

Hallstatt Period grave goods from Kasendorf Germany ca. 800 BCE

The use of rye (Secale cereale) in beer production certainly predates the German purity law (Reinheitsgebot) of 1516 that declared “… in all cities, markets and in the country, the only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be Barley, Hops and Water…” Rye was omitted because it was deemed a vital food source, so as not to be depleted for excessive beer production. Prior to the early 16th century quality control measure, the use of rye in brewing beer was a commonality throughout northern Europe, because it is very tolerant of cooler climates and can grow in more acidic soils than wheat or barley. The plant itself was likely first domesticated in eastern Turkey and northwestern Iran during the Neolithic Period ca. 5000 BCE, but doesn’t begin to show up in central Europe in its domesticated form until the late Bronze Age ca.1800-1500 BCE (Zohary & Hopf 2000:75). In Europe, it likely grew as a weed in the crop fields of early farmers, until its largest grains were isolated and selected for continued cultivation, i.e. domestication.

Therefore, this roggenbier is inspired by references to rye ales that were being brewed in southern Germany during the Roman and Early Medieval periods. Indeed, the Roman author Publius Cornelius Tacitus wrote in the year 98 that “the Germanii serve an extract of barley and rye as a beverage that is somehow adulterated to resemble wine” (De origine et situ germanorum). Moreover, in 1256 the author Aldorbrandino of Siena Italy wrote that ale made from “rye or rye bread with mint and wild celery as additives was the best kind of beer” (Li Livres dou Santé).

Specific Gravity 1.044

Prior to pitching the European ale yeast on the morning following the brewing session of Wednesday October 7th, a specific gravity reading was taken. The hydrometer settled on the 1.044 line, ca. 6% maximum ABV, though it will likely bottom out at around 5%. Much like a dunkelweizen, this roggenbier is expected to be amber colored with malty notes, mildly hopped and a crisp minty rye finish. Due to a large amount of sediment from the all-grain mash, it will undergo secondary fermentation in one week, followed by a bottling session here at Discovery World on October 21st.

Grain mash undergoing vermicomposting in our Biology Laboratory by hundreds of red wiggler worms (Eisenia foetida)

The final stage in this transformation of the all grain mash was recycling, in this case back to soil with the aid of hundreds of red wiggler worms. Currently they are devouring the mash in two large pails. The entire mash was mixed with equal parts soil/mulch obtained from Growing Power Inc. It is important to monitor the soil temperature for optimal decomposition and worm comfort. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to break down the grains into usable soil. Updates to follow!

Artifact Deposition into the Modern Archaeological Record

Have you ever wondered what happens to the styrofoam coffee cup that you recently tossed into the garbage bin? Once its liquid contents were consumed did you give any thought to the disposable container itself? Like most of us, the mass produced containers of our consumable society are taken for granted and quickly forgotten once they reach their designated garbage receptacles. It is precisely these disposed of pieces of our daily lives that the field of Archaeology studies, in order to understand material culture in the context of time and space. A broken piece of pottery from a 1,500 year old Woodland Period jar found along the Milwaukee River holds similar cultural meaning as an aluminum root beer can located in the same vicinity. Each elicits data pertaining to human rendered technology, cultural modes of consumption, environmental deposition, artifact preservation, etc. Yet, only a fraction of the cultural behaviors that were enacted to produce, consume and dispose of these disparately connected artifacts can ever be ascertained.

However, now with the aid of innovative technology developed by MIT’s SENSEable City Lab, modern artifacts are beginning to provide insightful information on the journey of a piece of trash through the “removal-chain.” TrashTrack uses hundreds of small, smart, location aware tags, which are part of a network of tiny locatable microeletromechanical systems currently under development. “These tags are attached to different types of trash so that these items can be followed through the city’s waste management system, revealing the final journey of our everyday objects in a series of real time visualizations.”

Data Collection Microchip

These kinds of data could have profound implications for how we think about the amount of waste we produce on a daily basis, as well as the distance and rate these objects travel over time. While this pilot program is designed for waste management purposes, the resulting data offer profound information for social scientists and certainly for future archaeologists. If someday all consumer products had similar microchips, one could locate the distribution and location of this garbage, which would be particularly important for environmentally degrading material culture, such as batteries, electronics, etc.

A Computer Midden from the Digital Age

By cultivating a more informed population about the insights gained from this technology, perhaps our collective conscience will be more cognizant about our consumptive patterns of behavior. Perhaps now we will begin to confront the mounting question of where and when our trash is disposed of and how long it remains in the environment, before it is either destroyed or recycled. Nevertheless, a more informed public can only mean a more habitable future when we begin to address the impact we are leaving in the archaeological record.

The Art and Archaeology of Me student public art projects

Vanishing are the days when scientists and artists pursued their dichotomous avenues of expression through either empirically derived text, or aesthetic façades of beauty. More and more the silos of thought and expression are merging and the boundaries between traditional academic disciplines are blurring. Take for instance the coalescence between Art and Archaeology. True these two areas of study are no strangers to each other, indeed antiquarians have been studying ancient rock art even before archaeology became a formal discipline in the late 19th Century. Nevertheless, like many arenas of science, scientific rigor takes a firm grip, which often results in the production of banal prose stocked with data tables, appendixes and often enigmatic statistical equations. While all of this data mining is crucial to establishing sound theories about past behaviors, its perpetuation can also lead to alienation of a public eager to learn about our past.

In order to mitigate this sense of alienation, those engaged in the scientific pursuit of knowledge production ought to consider the use of public art as a way to bridge the gap between the ivory towers of academia and the concrete benches of civil society. Too often are these public spaces marred by superficial commercial interests trying to sell us something; instead, why not produce substantive public art that combines sound research without any commercial interest whatsoever?

Fortunately a vivid example of this altruistic pursuit involves a public art installation on Milwaukee’s lakefront, at the corner of Lincoln Memorial Dr. and Harbor Dr.. Standing nearly 20 feet tall, four high school students are depicted along with family photos, historic and modern maps, personal artifacts and thought provoking captions. These posters along with several others attached to lampposts along Harbor Drive are the culminating visual-arts projects completed this past Spring by 25 students from Bay View High School here in Milwaukee.

This project called “The Art and Archaeology of Me” was made possible by a Milwaukee Public School and Discovery World arts partnerships grant. Each Friday for nine weeks, students from Bay View High School worked with professional staff members at Discovery World in a project-based experience to motivate academic achievement through exploration of personal and urban archaeology, with the goal of developing a visual archaeological history of their own lives.

The resulting public art display certainly enacts a sense of pride and motivation for the students who are depicted along with their personal artifacts for thousands of passer-bys to wonder what it means, thus provoking deeper conversations about the impact of the our own pasts on the present.

Therefore, this example of personal and public archaeology is an effort to increase our awareness of how our past better informs us of the present and how the present affects the future. This subtext helps to promote a deeper understanding of how to access the past, which in turn brings it to the forefront of our collective consciousness so that future generations can retain a link to their histories and a connection to an otherwise ever-changing ephemeral landscape. Perhaps then, when we begin to acknowledge and respect our individual histories, will we become more tolerant of each others unique forms of cultural expression. Clearly this is a vital lesson humanity has yet to learn.

Bay View High School Student Posters

Car ferry underway ca. 1920s

The year was 1929 and a tremendous late October storm was howling out of northern Lake Michigan. Dozens of ships labored to find safety in ports across the lake, while some chose to fight the storm and cross the 76 mile breadth of tumultuous seas between Wisconsin and Michigan. One such captain, aptly known as “Heavy Weather” McKay, made the decision to make a run for Grand Haven, MI from Milwaukee WI and risk his crew of around 50 men and his cargo of some 25 railroad cars loaded with Kohler bathtubs, Nash automobiles, barley, cheese, feed, canned peas, among other goods.

At 3:45pm on October 22nd, the 338 foot long car ferry SS Milwaukee of the Grand Trunk Railroad Company was spotted by the crew of the U.S. Lightship 95, a ship anchored 3 miles offshore serving as a lighthouse. They reported the SS Milwaukee to be pitching and rolling heavily as it disappeared into the storm heading east as 20 foot waves crashing over her steel hull.  This would be the last sighting of the car ferry before her remains were discovered on April 14th  1972 by legendary shipwreck hunters, Kent Bellrichard, John Steele and Roger Chapman in over 100 feet of water three miles off Fox Point, WI.

Divers Exploring the SS Milwaukee

As part of this years ROV Days, our third expedition to the wreck in as many years was mounted on July 20th-21st 2009, where we brought students and the public to this local maritime landmark aboard Discovery World’s tall ship the S/V Denis Sullivan, under the command of captain Tiffany Krihwan.  One of the main objectives of this seasons expedition was to employ sophisticated imaging technology to continue documenting the wreck site, using Remotely Operated Vehicles, Sector Scanning Sonar and with SCUBA divers in the water to photograph and map the wreck using conventional underwater archaeology methods.  In addition to on board education about the history of the SS Milwaukee, the passengers were able to see and participate in legitimate underwater archaeology research from the deck of a replica 19th century three-masted schooner.

ROV’s explore the wreck site

The Remotely Operated Vehicle used in this research was a VideoRay ROV, piloted by Patrick Rowe of Midwest ROV. Patrick was able to fly throughout the wreck and even enter confined spaces that were previously not recorded. Gauging by the excited reactions of those watching the wreck below us, it was a tremendous thrill and unique opportunity for the non-diving public to access this submerged cultural resource, which would otherwise be inaccessible.   The hours of ROV footage that has been recorded on this wreck provides an excellent archive of visual material to make sense of the wreck site and to document its slow decay as time goes by.

Sector scan of pilot house, port side and the wreck debris field

The Sector Scanning Sonar equipment was brought from Michigan by the Nautilus Marine Group led by Brian Abbott and David Thompson. This scanning system uses high resolution sonar technology to imaging the wreck site while sitting in a tripod on the lake bottom. By changing the placement of the tripod and the range to be scanned (30-200 foot radius) a shipwreck like the SS Milwaukee can be mapped in a matter of hours. We were able to get several very good scans of the wreck site, which picked up debris around the wreck that was previously unknown. The advantage of this system is that anomalies can be measured to the centimeter both in terms of overall size, but also how far off the bottom they are.  These data will result in the most detailed map of the shipwreck site.

Kevin Cullen (left) and Kimm Stabelfeldt (right) drawing the wreckage

Finally, by actually diving down to the stern (back end) of the wreck allowed for a more vivid interaction with the wreck by measuring specific features, such as the car deck (30′ diameter) each propeller measured 12′8″ in diameter, a car tire at the stern had an overall diameter of 2′5″. This sea gate measured 5′ in height, but was likely not high or thick enough to withstand the incredible force of the swamping waves, which resulted in bending the gate in and thus flooding the crews quarters at the stern of the ship. After scraping away a two inch layer of zebra mussels, a large crack measuring 1′8″  was noted running down the port hull where the sea gate was attached. Based on this evidence and the crumpled state the sea gate is in as it hangs off the stern, it now seems probable that some of the railroad cars came loose smashed through the sea gate. In fact the remains of a railroad car can be seen beneath the enormous propellers, which tells us it sank to the bottom before the ship sank and landed right on top of it.

All together, this years human and technological “eyes in the deep” resulted in new information about the demise of the SS Milwaukee and current state of preservation. Moreover, by engaging the public in expeditions of this nature, it no doubt fosters a greater appreciation for our collective maritime history, while bringing awareness to the thousands of shipwrecks throughout the Great Lakes. It is because of these underwater museums that we owe a debt of gratitude to, for their efforts in fueling the growth of the American economy.

Read more coverage by Stan Miller of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published July 31st in the Cue Section

http://www.jsonline.com/features/technology/52088367.html