title: Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China.
abstract: Chemical analyses of ancient organics absorbed into pottery jars from the early Neolithic village of Jiahu in Henan province in China have revealed that a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey, and fruit (hawthorn fruit and/or grape) was being produced as early as the seventh millennium before Christ (B.C.). This prehistoric drink paved the way for unique cereal beverages of the proto-historic second millennium B.C., remarkably preserved as liquids inside sealed bronze vessels of the Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties. These findings provide direct evidence for fermented beverages in ancient Chinese culture, which were of considerable social, religious, and medical significance, and help elucidate their earliest descriptions in the Shang Dynasty oracle inscriptions.
authors.affiliation: Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. mcgovern@sas.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Patrick E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: McGovern
authors.forename: Juzhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jigen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Zhiqing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Gretchen R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Moreau
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nuñez
authors.forename: Eric D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Butrym
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: Chen-Shan
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Guangsheng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Zhijun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Changsui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001106:Archaeology; D001628:Beverages / Q000032:analysis* / Q000266:history*; D002681:China; D005285:Fermentation; D005638:Fruit / Q000266:history; D049690:History, Ancient; D006722:Honey / Q000266:history; D012275:Oryza / Q000266:history; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D014920:Wine / Q000032:analysis / Q000266:history