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Back in my day... (media.piefed.world)
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[-] Skua@kbin.earth 220 points 2 weeks ago

Isn't that like 4,000 years before the first records of coffee being prepared as a drink?

Edit: upon a little research, the tablet in the image is a version of the Instructions of Shuruppak. The oldest known copies we have, of which the depicted tablet is one, do indeed date back to around 2,600 BCE. However, the text is supposed to be the words of an ancient king given as advice to his son much earlier. In fact, the first part of the text is, "In those days, in those far remote days, in those nights, in those faraway nights, in those years, in those far remote years, at that time the wise one who knew how to speak in elaborate words lived in the Land." The speaker is said to be the son of king Ubara-Tutu, who is mentioned on the Sumerian king list as having reigned for over 18,000 years prior to the great flood of Sumerian myth. We can't really put any actual dates on that and have no archaeological evidence for basically anything relevant, but some archaeologists date it around some known localised flooding around 400 years earlier than the writing of this tablet

Anyway there's nothing in there about coffee or even about the habits of The Youth These Days, but it does contain such pearls of ancient wisdom as "you make bad decisions when you are drunk" and "hurting yourself with an axe is bad actually". There is a missing chunk that mentions beer and the god Ninkasi, herself associated with brewing and beer, so it's possible that there was something about the flavouring of beer in that bit, but the trasnslation I'm looking at makes no mention of it

https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/tr561.htm

Edit again: also the original poster was joking

[-] Klear@quokk.au 36 points 2 weeks ago

That guy was ahead of his time.

[-] bier@feddit.nl 7 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks, I also couldn't really believe this was real. A quick google search tells me

Ethiopia is widely considered to be the epicentre of where coffee came from. If you've ever googled “coffee history”, you will have come across the famous story of how coffee was discovered in Ethiopia by Kaldi, an Ethiopian goat herder, around 800 AD.

[-] Pipster 5 points 2 weeks ago

Im assuming its referring to a different drink that isn't common knowledge so its just funnier to call it coffee

[-] breecher@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 weeks ago

It isn't referring to anything of the sort though.

[-] mineralfellow@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Thank you for saving me from diving in the hole.

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 44 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I want this to be true, but it is so on the nose it would be great to know for sure. Any sauce for this one?

(I tried searching but only found walls of reposted shitty copper reviews)

[-] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 53 points 2 weeks ago

Coffee was "discovered" around the 9th century AD, so I'm gonna have to call shenanigans on this one.

[-] TuEstUnePommeDeTerre 41 points 2 weeks ago

The tablet matches the image on the Wikipedia page for the Instructions of Shuruppak

[-] bassomitron@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

Nice catch! Thanks for the link

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago
[-] Lumidaub@feddit.org 3 points 2 weeks ago

Ah, but there IS an example of "humans have always been Like This":

insults and stupid speaking receive the attention of the land

(seriousness of slander intensifying)

[-] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

That and "today's youth is worthless" are timeless experiences across all cultures and eras of history.

[-] kamenlady@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago

iirc coffee was not a thing in sumeria 2600 BC

[-] Deceptichum@quokk.au 3 points 2 weeks ago

Same outcome, just one Twitter post and a blog post and nothing else.

[-] TomMasz@piefed.social 31 points 2 weeks ago

I know this is a joke, but you really haven't had bad coffee until you've had percolated coffee. We live in enlightened times.

[-] guy@piefed.social 9 points 2 weeks ago

Percolated coffee is totally fine?

[-] glitchdx@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

you're not a coffee snob. Sorry, "connoisseur".

[-] UnsavoryMollusk@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Are you confusing it with the Moka Pot ?

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[-] shane@feddit.nl 7 points 2 weeks ago

For people saying "it's fine", they are probably not talking about the same thing

I assume you mean this monstrosity:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_percolator

Which is indeed a crime against humanity. My parents used one and kept me from realizing that coffee is delicious until I was 18 years old or so.

The other people probably mean this simple yet effective device:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot

Especially the comment about 60 million Italians.

The moka pot is great and I use it to make my own latte every day.

[-] TomMasz@piefed.social 3 points 2 weeks ago

YES! This is exactly what I was referring to, not the Moka pot. I guess the percolator has faded from our collective memories.

[-] tempest@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

People would probably recognize it in its more common form

[-] LwL@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Every time I read about these things I get some sort of morbid curiosity about how coffee made with them tastes. Maybe I should check some second hand shops. Has the upside of saving someone from buying one to actually regularly make coffee...

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[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 30 points 2 weeks ago

Okay, Sumer.

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago

TIL there were hipster baristas in ancient Sumeria

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

And Sumerian Karens

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 17 points 2 weeks ago

The world has basically been in decline since before life began. Or at least that's how some people perceive it.

[-] FantasmaNaCasca@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago

"In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.'"

[-] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 weeks ago

We could all use some more Douglas Adams in these trying times.

[-] aeternum 4 points 2 weeks ago

now we all strive for money. WTF is money? It's data on a hard drive, and yet we will die to protect it. Money was the worst invention ever and it's gone downhill even faster since then.

[-] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 weeks ago

Nahh, we've been going backwards since agriculture

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[-] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 15 points 2 weeks ago

Winding the clock forward, our coffee must be even weaker, weaker beyond words. Can you imagine how amazing coffee must have been in his youth?

[-] Wolf@lemmy.today 9 points 2 weeks ago

The coffee in his day would wake up before you, make itself, and then wake you up by pouring itself down your throat.

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

And his grandfather's coffee was so strong and pure that just the smell of it had the same effect as drinking his grandson's (which would get brought up every single time coffee was mentioned).

And I don't mean the smell of it being brewed or roasted, but just the smell of the raw beans. Roasting and brewing came from someone chasing the old bean high from their youth.

[-] MehBlah@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

His lawn, get off it.

[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 weeks ago

Same as it ever was

[-] Catpuccino@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago
[-] JargonWagon@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago
[-] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago

This is why the English have been on a downward trend since the Victorian period, too many ancient artifacts with curses.

[-] waigl@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

I thought coffee was only discovered much later in present day Ethiopia. Are you sure he wasn't talking about beer or wine?

[-] Bluewing@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

If god intended my coffee to be mixed with any of that gunk, it woulda been grown on the coffee tree that way.........

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[-] Wolf@lemmy.today 8 points 2 weeks ago
[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 weeks ago

AHHH SNL used to be so good. That's how it was in our day and we liked it!!!!!

/s /!s /s

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

I'm ride or die for Sarah Squirm. But otherwise, kinda, yeah.

The best take on SNL is "The People's Joker". Please blow up Lorne Michaels with a comedy pile of dynamite.

[-] InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 weeks ago

I'm an American in 2025, I'm just glad I can still kind of afford the very cheapest coffee I can find. Not gonna complain too much about the taste as long as I get my sweet coffee buzz in the morning.

[-] Magnum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago
[-] nandeEbisu@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

Kids start drinking watered down fru-fru coffee, right after the last early dynastic king falls and Sumer is taken over by Lagash?

Sounds to me like watered down coffee is a pretty reliable indicator for the collapse of the current state.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

The ancient incantation that instantly kills Dennis Leary.

[-] humble_boatsman@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago

This must just be a "chunk" of the "script" how do scholars glean that much context out of those crude symbols?

[-] Uruanna@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

We have other fragments and also other copies of that text.

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this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2025
693 points (100.0% liked)

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