Patrick McGovern, an archaeologist who analyzed ancient cauldrons, shards of pottery and broken bottles to discover and then recreate the alcoholic beverages that intoxicated prehistoric civilizations, including booze found in the tomb of King Midas, died on Aug. 24 at his home in Media, Pa. He was 80.
His death was announced by the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania, where he had been the scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages and Health. The cause was complications of prostate cancer.
Described as the “Indiana Jones of ancient alcohol” in articles about his forensic analysis of ancient drinkware, Dr. McGovern almost single-handedly created an academic field that “scholars jokingly refer to as drinkology, or dipsology,” the Smithsonian Magazine wrote in 2011.
To him, these liquid time capsules were an overlooked and revelatory way to connect civilizations.
“Just about every culture you can think of, they have a fermented beverage that’s central to the social activity, religions, and a lot of times, it becomes economically very important,” Dr. McGovern told NPR in 2017. “And I’m always surprised when I see a book on the Paleolithic, or even just more modern recent history, where they don’t really even discuss it.”
Bespectacled, bearded and more professorial in appearance than the Indiana Jones character that Harrison Ford played onscreen, Dr. McGovern used modern scientific methods, including multiple forms of spectrometry, to identify biomarkers in the residue in primitive drinking vessels.
The post Patrick McGovern, the ‘Indiana Jones of Ancient Alcohol,’ Dies at 80 appeared first on New York Times.
