[MR] Water, beer, and things to drink

[Maymunah al Siqilliyah]

I'm not challenging you, because I know and respect your knowledge, but 
I'm just curious.  How do you know what they knew about siting wells?

On 2/1/2011 11:47 AM, Elspeth Payne wrote:
> RE: water in period...some assorted thoughts here. 
>
> Most folks who dug wells knew their business.  They knew how they needed to be
> sited, how far from outhouses and cemeteries etc.   Some folks wouldn't have, of
> course, and would suffer accordingly.  But unlike us SCAdians, who so often have
> to figure it out for ourselves, in communities there would have been ways to
> learn lore like that and clearly identified people who knew it. (Boy, it's hard
> not to say that in a ridiculously general way!)
>
> Distilled beverages were around at least by the 3rd c (the process wasn't new
> then, that's just the earliest date I have in my head), when Greek sailors
> distilled seawater on deck to get fresh water.  As far as I know so far the
> process was used for things like  1) chemical processes such removing the gold
> from embroidery, 2) making medicinal tonics, 3) creating fresh water in small
> quantities, 4) creating cosmetics and fragrant oils.  The medicinal tonics I
> have encountered seem to be based on distilled wine, pretty much exclusively.
>
> Not all beers and wines were as strong as ours.  Most of the ordinary ones don't
> seem to have been - especially the wines.  In Europe there does seem to have
> been the strong bias against drinking water.  It seems to have represented
> poverty and abstinence - you read of holy orders drinking water, for example. 
> Once the Crusaders got to the Middle East - anyone know  how they adjusted? 
> Surely they adjusted?  Very light beer might have solved dehydration problems,
> but wine probably wouldn't have, plus transportation and purchasing expenses,
> etc etc...
>
> I also notice that most period drinking vessels were smaller than I expect -
> even Arab Boy's wonderful drinking glasses (he says) are copies of glasses that
> are perhaps 2/3 of the size of the ones he makes.
>
> Cheers,
> Baroness Sorcha
>
>
>
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