By The European Times | Created at 2026-10-01 06:46:58 | Updated at 2026-10-01 09:10:28
2 hours ago
A team led by Academician Vasil Nikolov—who has spent years studying the Old Continent’s first salt-production center—has made a sensational discovery in Provadia-Solnitsata, Europe’s oldest city. They uncovered traces of beer production dating back to the period between 5600 and 4350 BC. According to the researchers, this constitutes the earliest evidence of beer production within the territory of present-day Bulgaria and across Europe. The news made headlines on the leading Dutch web portal NU.nl.
Solnitsata, near Provadia, is the oldest known salt-production center in Europe and one of the continent’s most ancient prehistoric settlements. It is the only site in Bulgaria to have been awarded the European Heritage Label.
Archaeologists discovered a broken vessel inside a house that had once been destroyed by fire. Inside, they found sprouted wheat grains—a process essential for malt production.
Based on this find, Academician Nikolov suggests that beer may have been produced in the area as early as 4500 BC.
Prior to this, the oldest evidence of beer production in Europe had been found in 1999 in the Can Sadurní cave near Barcelona; those remains were dated to between 4300 and 4000 BC. If the Bulgarian find is confirmed as evidence of beer production, it could push back the existing European record by several hundred years.
On a global scale, evidence of beer production dates back even further. In 2018, mortars dating back approximately 13,000 years—containing traces of cereal grains—were discovered in Raqefet Cave near the Israeli city of Haifa.
Illustrative photo: pexels-donovan-kelly-110228397-27623973
