This has inevitably become a popular story and there are lots of links telling the same story. This one seems to be a fair summary, if you ignore the idiotic title.
A team of researchers in the US has discovered traces of a medicinal alcoholic drink in bottles that are more than 5,000 years old.
The scientists extracted wine compounds and plant-derived ingredients from a jar taken from the tomb of one of the first pharaohs of Egypt, Scorpion I.
This is the earliest sample of a human-made medicine.
The researchers report their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Patrick McGovern, professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, led the research.
The vessels that he and his team tested came from excavated tombs in southern Egypt - the earliest of which dates from 3150BC.
"This is the earliest Egyptian vessel ever found to have wine in it," Professor McGovern told BBC News.
"It shows that, by trial and error, humans were discovering remedies over 5,000 years ago, and that alcoholic beverages were a key part of the discovery process."
See the above page for the full story.
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