Ancient metal tubes unearthed in 1897 could be oldest surviving drinking straws

Experts claim that a set of ancient gold and silver tubes unearthed in the North Caucasus in Russia could be the world's oldest drinking straws.

In the summer of 1897, the largest of three compartments containing human remains was found, with eight thin-walled tubes in it.

The tubes are from the fourth millennium BC and are now in the Hermitage Museum. Four of the tubes have gold or silver bull figurines on them.

The tubes may have been used to support a canopy in the funeral procession, or they may have been sceptres. A team of experts in Russia said they were likely to be straws for drinking beer from a shared pot.

The earliest evidence of drinking through long tubes was found in these objects, which are thought to be from the third and second century BC.

The items are designed for sipping a type of beverage that required filtration during consumption, according to the team.

The researchers say that depictions of seals from Iran and Iraq dating to the fifth to fourth millennium BC are proof of their theory.

The grave of the woman known as Queen Puabi was found with a reed stem wrapped in gold foil and two metal drinking tubes.

The metal straw tip-strainers used on the ends of reed straws in the second millennium BC are consistent with the tubes' perforated tip.

The set of eight drinking tubes in the Maykop tomb may represent the equipment for eight people who could have sat to drink beer from the single, large jar found in the tomb, according to the authors.

The team said that they found evidence of a drink in one of the tubes, but it's not conclusive.

Viktor Trifonov, the first author of the research from the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the position of the tubes alongside the body shows the importance of the feast in the funerary rite and the high social rank for someone who throws a banquet.

Prof Augusta McMahon of the University of Cambridge said that the work was convincing and that the purpose was fancy but functional.

She said filter straws were a necessary implement in Mesopotamia, and that beer waschunky with sediment.

She said that drinking straws show the importance of past communal eating and drinking as a powerful creator of social connections.