Oldest evidence of malted barley shows ancient Scandinavians made beer

By Joshua Rapp Learn

Ancient malted barley grains have revealed that Danes were probably using this to brew beer and raising their drinking horns at least two millennia ago.

The oldest known beers in the world trace back to the beginning of agriculture in the Middle East. In Scandinavia, the oldest evidence of this drink is based on residue in a bark bucket from roughly 1370 BC which was found in the grave of a Bronze Age teenager known as the Egtved Girl. But chemical …