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We are told that the dawn of agriculture was about bread. That our Stone Age ancestors settled down to plant wheat and barley so they could bake loaves. But a growing body of research suggests that this may not be entirely true. The real lure of grain was not bread. It was beer. The frothy, fermented drink may have nudged humanity from nomadic hunting and gathering into the settled villages that became the seedbed of civilisation.In the 1950s, botanist Jonathan Sauer asked a simple question: why would early people put so much effort into farming for such meagre returns of grain? His answer was striking-because fermented mash yielded a nutritious and enjoyable drink. This was a far greater incentive than dry flour and flatbread. Archaeological evidence backs this intuition. At Raqefet Cave in Israel, traces of beer-like residue dating back 13,000 years have been found. These were made by the Natufians, semi-nomadic people who lived before the first domestication of cereals. They were brewing for ritual feasts long before they were baking. Ancient sites like Gobikele Tepe, in Turkey, which is over 10,000 years old, have revealed evidence of beer making. The perforated pots of Harappan cities also indicate beer making.Even the kinds of crops that were first domesticated hint at intoxication as the goal. In Mexico, a primitive maize called teosinte was cultivated, but it was far better suited to brewing than grinding into flour. Across continents, the pattern repeats-grain makes better sense as beer than as bread.Brewing beer required something new from our ancestors: stability. One cannot plant grain, wait for it to grow, harvest, and ferment it without staying put. Thus the thirst for beer may have tethered humanity to the land. Once people began to settle, villages grew, surpluses appeared, and the Neolithic Revolution unfolded. Beer did not just nourish the body-it structured the rhythm of life.Archaeologist Brian Hayden pushes this further. He argues that it was not hunger, but culture, that birthed farming. Beer was the centrepiece of feasts where people bonded, celebrated, and made decisions. These gatherings forged trust, encouraged cooperation, and allowed leaders to build alliances. In that convivial haze, power structures were negotiated and communities began to take shape.Sceptics have always asked: could people really live on beer? Perhaps not entirely-but beer was more nutritious than bread at the time. Fermentation unlocked sugars and vitamins, making it calorie-dense and rich in proteins. Beer was also safer than water. As settlements grew, rivers and wells became polluted with human waste. Drinking raw water carried disease. Beer, through fermentation, killed bacteria and reduced pathogens. It was liquid food, medicine, and safety rolled into one.Workers in ancient Egypt were even paid in beer, which sustained those who built pyramids and temples. In Sumer, beer was a unit of currency and a measure of fairness. Hymns were composed to Ninkasi, the goddess of brewing, celebrating recipes in poetic form. The world's first written epic, Gilgamesh, mentions beer. Civilization's earliest laws, hymns, and myths all carried the mark of this humble drink.The social role of beer cannot be overstated. Communal drinking bonded people together. The buzz made strangers friends and eased tensions. This mattered immensely as tribes grew larger and strangers had to coexist in crowded villages. Political elites quickly realized its power. Hosting a feast with plentiful beer was a way to display wealth, cement loyalty, and mobilise labour. In many societies, from Mesopotamia to Egypt, beer was both reward and persuasion.Even decision-making was tied to drink. Ancient sources tell us that in Persia and Germany, councils made collective decisions after drinking -and then confirmed them when sober, or the other way around. Either way, alcohol was seen as an aid to deliberation. In other words, beer helped build not just barns, but bureaucracies.None of this means bread played no role. Nutritionally, bread and porridge were essential. Beer was not the sole driver of agriculture, but one of its key companions. Together, bread and beer shaped human diets, rituals, and economies. The 'beer before bread' hypothesis is less about exclusivity and more about emphasis-it reminds us that culture, pleasure, and ritual can be as powerful as survival in steering human history.In Hindu mythology, Varuni was churned out of the ocean of milk. Varuni, the goddess of alcohol, is closely linked to Balarama, the god of farming. Was this an Indian way of connecting beer and bread? We can surely speculate. Bread fed the body, but beer shaped the village. And in shaping the village, it shaped the world.

Ukraine said on Friday that Russia had launched a "massive attack" on the capital Kyiv, triggering power cuts as a minister warned that Moscow was also striking hard at the national energy grid."The capital of the country is under an enemy ballistic missile attack and a massive attack by the enemy strike drones," the Ukrainian air force said, urging Kyiv residents to remain in shelters. AFP journalists in Kyiv heard several powerful explosions in the city and experienced power outages at their homes in different districts of the capital.Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russian forces had targeted "critical infrastructure" and wounded at least nine people, five of whom were taken to hospital."The left bank of the capital is without electricity. There are also problems with water supply," Klitschko said on the Telegram platform.The Ukrainian energy minister, Svitlana Grynchuk, said Russian forces were "inflicting a massive strike" on the grid."Energy workers are taking all necessary measures to minimise the negative consequences," Grynchuk said on Facebook."As soon as security conditions allow, energy workers will begin clarifying the consequences of the attack and restoration work," she said.Russia also hit the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia with at least seven drone strikes, wounding at least three people, according to Ivan Fedorov, the head of the regional military administration.Russia has escalated aerial attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities and rail systems over recent weeks.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Moscow was seeking to "create chaos" by hitting energy facilities and railways.Ukraine has stepped up its own drone and missile strikes on Russian territory in response, a tactic that Zelensky said was showing "results" and was pushing up fuel prices in Russia.bur-mjw/tc

National Stock Exchange (CEO) Ashish Kumar Chauhan lost 16 months salary in the infamous Harshad Mehta scam but it served as a formative lesson for him on financial discipline and the dangers of excessive leverage. The CEO on Friday told NDTV Profit how he lost Rs 50,000 early in his career when his monthly salary was just Rs 3,000.Recounting the ordeal, Chauhan said that he started working in 1991 and invested in stock markets without fully understanding the risks.It was a period when India's balance of payments crisis occurred, forcing the much-needed economic reforms which among other things, also opened financial markets to private investors.These liberalisation measures created both opportunities and risks for early market participants, Chauhan said.The Harshad Mehta scam - a major financial scandal in India happened in 1992, involving manipulation of the stock markets using fraudulent banking receipts and loopholes in the banking system. Mehta, a stock broker, artificially inflated stock prices by diverting funds from banks.“It took me a long time to recover and repay the loss,” NDTV Profit reported quoting Chauhan.He advised investors to avoid over-leveraging and trading in instruments they do not understand, which includes the complex derivatives segment. “Leverage is the ultimate risk,” Chauhan said.The CEO explained why individuals run a higher risk of losing money in the markets. While companies can access bankruptcy processes in India, individuals have no such protection, leaving them vulnerable for years, he said.He recommended that investors secure basic financial safety first—buying a home, taking insurance, and holding fixed deposits—before committing 5–10% of their net worth to the stock market.Chauhan also warned against short-term speculative trading. “Buying in the morning and selling in the afternoon is not investing,” he said.He noted that while derivatives are sophisticated instruments he helped introduce to Indian markets, they are best suited for investors who thoroughly understand their complexities. He also underscored the growing maturity of Indian investors, pointing out that the sustained popularity of systematic investment plans reflects their enduring confidence in capital markets despite past financial scandals.Chauhan's advice comes in the backdrop of several measures now being taken by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to mitigate the risks of speculative trading. This includes curtailing weekly expiries to one per exchange increasing lot sizes of index derivatives.The regulator is also working on ways to deepen the domestic ash markets. (Disclaimer: The recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times.)