So the discoveries in 1928 and 1948 were only a few thousand years after the Nubians were widely using antibiotics to address various illnesses. Let's see if the history books are correctly updated.
The first of the modern day tetracyclines was discovered in 1948. It was given the name auereomycin, after the Latin word 'aerous,' which means containing gold.
'Streptomyces produce a golden colony of bacteria, and if it was floating on a batch of beer, it must have look pretty impressive to ancient people who revered gold,' Nelson said.
The ancient Egyptians and Jordanians also used beer to treat gum disease and other ailments.
The team now intends to try and work out exactly when the knowledge of the antibiotic properties of the beer was lost to history.
Alexander Fleming is credited with discovering the first antibiotic, penicillin, in 1928.
