In present day Jordan, archaeologist have uncovered what what remains of the Natufian culture. While they were mostly hunter-gatherers, the Natufians also give us the earliest known remains of bread and beer, both of which are found in this area. The bread could be anywhere from 11,600 to 14,600 years old, and the beer could be anywhere from 11,700 to 13,700 years old. Which begs the question…

There’s obviously some overlap with the dating for the Natufains beer and bread, and unless our ability to carbon date gets dramatically better, we won’t get a clear answer from this one location.

But this isn’t our only evidence

The people living in ancient Latin America would make chicha(CHEE-cha), basically a corn beer. The difference is corn, as we know it today, didn’t exist back then. Instead these people would have been using corns predecessor, Teosinte(tay-o-CENT-a).

The issue? The teosinte grain is basically un-useable for making bread or tortillas. However, it’s great for making beer. If these ancient Latin Americans were looking for something to make food with, teosinte wouldn’t have been planted and harvested. Its only real value would have been if they needed a grain that would help them make beer.

Further research is required to prove or disprove this hypothesis, but there’s a very real possibility that our ancient ancestors were more focused on getting drunk than on producing bread.