ALCOHOL AND SOCIAL COMPLEXITY IN ANCIENT WESTERN ASIA

An underappreciated feature of complex societies is the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages, in particular wines and beers. A variety of data are reviewed which suggest significant expansion of al coholic beverage production and consumption in many areas of Western A sia during the 4th and 3d millennia B.C. Production of beverages forme d part of the processes by which emerging elites expanded control over craft production, established symbols, created manipulable surpluses, and renegotiated gender roles. Consumption of beverages was an import ant element of nutrition, ritual, and political economy in the early s ocieties of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria, and the Levant. Review of evide nce from the Aegean indicates similar processes at work but with empha sis on competitive feasting and hospitality. These different uses of a lcoholic beverages represent significant regularities in the emergence of social complexity and the rise of the state.