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.

Fig. 1.

Representative pottery and bronze vessels dating to the Neolithic period and the Shang/Western Zhou Dynasties, showing selective analyses of their contents. (a) Typical Neolithic storage jar from Jiahu (no. T109:65, subperiod II, ca. 6600–6200 B.C.). (b) Lidded he “teapot” from Anyang (Liu Jiazhuang Tomb, no. M1046:2, ca. 1250–1000 B.C.). (c) GC-MS analysis of chloroform extract of a, showing homologous series of n-alkanes. (d) HPLC-MS analysis of chloroform extract of c, showing the presence of β-amyrin; oleanolic acid was attested at 8.9 min.

Fig. 2.

Diffuse-reflectance FT-IR analysis of storage jar (compare Fig. 1a) methanol extract from Jiahu (no. T109:8, subperiod III, ca. 6200–5800 B.C.).

Fig. 3.

Thermal desorption GC-MS analysis of lidded you jar from the Changzikou Tomb in Luyi county, Henan province, dated ca. 1250–1000 B.C. Peaks a, b, and c are caused by benzaldehyde, camphor, and α-cedrene. Possible wine-derived propanoic acid derivatives account for the two most intense peaks near 10 min. Other peaks correlate with ubiquitous environmental contaminants, especially phthalates.