Two archaeologists walk into a 5,000-year-old tavern ...

An international team of researchers from Penn and the University of Pisa announced the discovery this month. The site was uncovered in the fall at Tell al Hiba, located in southeastern Iraq, about 150 miles from the modern port city of Basra.

Archaeologists found a seven-room structure featuring an open courtyard with benches and a large open cooking area with a 10-foot-wide mud-brick oven. They also discovered a primitive refrigerator. Known as a “zeer” in Arabic, the device consisted of two bottomless clay jars that used evaporation to help cool perishable items.

In another room, the team discovered a large quantity of conical bowls that held ready-to-eat food and jars that the archaeologists think contained beer.

“We’re trying to find out now through lipid analysis what was in the bowls or the jars,” said Pittman, who is also Near East curator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. “But it looks like this was kind of a McDonald’s with prepared food for fast service.”

Lagash was once a bustling community with a thriving commercial district in southern Mesopotamia, known today as the “cradle of civilization.” Located near the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, Lagash was one of the oldest cities of the Early Dynastic period, about 2900–2350 B.C.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/02/21/worlds-oldest-tavern-lagash-iraq/