This pub is 5,000 years old

Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Lagash, near the modern village of Al-Shatrah, Iraq, have found a pub that served food and drink back in 2,700 BCE. The researchers who found the ruins of the tavern just 19 inches underground describe it as offering both open-air and inside dining. From CNN:

The team then discovered the industrial-sized oven, a moisture-wicking ancient "fridge," to keep food cool, and dozens of conical bowls, many containing fish remains, revealing the purpose of the courtyard to be an outdoor dining area […]

Lagash, now the town of al-Hiba, was one of the oldest and largest cities in southern Mesopotamia — occupied from the fifth millennium until the middle of the second millennium BCE and encompassing an area of almost two square miles.

It has since become an important archaeological site, with excavations restarting most recently in 2019 as part of a joint project between the Penn Museum, the University of Cambridge and the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage in Baghdad, using new techniques such as drone photography and genetic analysis.

More on the site: The Lagash Archaeological Project