Abstract This article deals with one of the most important human needs; it summarises the poor archaeological information about basic types of drinks. Although the data both for the beginning of various types of drink as well as for their frequency are mostly insufficient in archaeology, great quantities of drinking vessels of various forms appear in the late Neolithic/Eneolithic, which allow us to identify certain types of behaviour. In particular it signals (with the aid of ethnological and historical analogies) the existence of communal drinking, a respectable social custom with important consequences: the development of the etiquette of hospitality, regulation of social relations, construction of networks of reciprocal obligations among drinkers, confirmation of the internal coherence of a community, and so on. The study of drinking has significant social, economic, and political aspects.