features Beer through the Ages The Role of Beer in Shaping Our Past and Current Worlds John W. Arthur Thirst rather than hunger may have been the stimulus behind the origin of small grain agriculture. —Jonathan Sauer, 1953 Man cannot live on beer alone. … Are we to believe that the foundations of Western Civilization were laid by an ill-fed people living in a perpetual state of partial intoxication? —Paul Mangledorf, 1953 D oing field research is incredibly excit- ing because it usually leads to new dis- coveries. This is what happened to me one day in the highlands of southern Ethiopia overlooking the Rift Valley, where I was working with an ethnic group, the Gamo, who live in southwestern Ethiopia. I wanted to look at how the Gamo produce, use and discard their pottery on an everyday basis. My goal was to understand the Gamo worldview in relation to pottery, which would aid in interpreting the pottery found John W. Arthur Beer through the Ages 1 Gamo farmers in southern Ethiopia preparing the harvest of grains.