Already 9000 years ago people in ancient China brewed a kind of beer from rice, wild grass and tubers, as evidenced by residues in drinking vessels from a burial mound. They are one of the oldest testimonies to beer production in the world. Presumably the hunters and gatherers of this region on the Yangtze River only made this rice beer on special occasions: In this case, the discovery of the drinking vessels next to two graves indicates a kind of ritual drunkenness for the dead.
The production of alcoholic beverages through fermentation has a long tradition: the Sumerians drank a fermented grain juice around 4,000 years ago, and archaeological finds in the Middle East show that fermented beverages were consumed by early hunters and gatherers on ritual occasions and at festivals. And beer-like drinks were also popular in the Far East thousands of years ago: the remains of an approximately 5000-year-old brewery prove that people in ancient China were already brewing a type of beer from barley, millet and plant roots.
Drinking vessels in the burial mound
Archaeologists working with Jiajing Wang from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and his Chinese colleagues in southern China have now discovered much older evidence of beer-like beverages. One of the oldest Neolithic settlement complexes known from China is located in the fertile area of ​​Shangshan on the Yangtze River. Early farmers settled there around 10,000 years ago and made the gradual transition to rice domestication and targeted rice cultivation. During excavations near Qiaotou, Wang and his team came across a hill about 9,000 years ago, about 80 meters long and 50 meters wide, which was surrounded by a man-made ditch.
Inside the hill, the researchers found two human bones, as well as several pits with ceramic vessels as grave goods. Some of these drinking vessels and bowls were decorated with abstract white patterns. As Wang and his team report, it may even be the oldest painted pottery in the world. But even more interesting than the vessels is the purpose they once served. To find out, Wang and his colleagues examined the residues inside the drinking vessels more closely. In particular, they looked for microfossils such as starch granules and fossilized remains of plants and fungi.
Beer made from rice, wild grass and tubers
“Prehistoric brews are similar to a type of porridge and contain insoluble materials such as starch and other plant substances that are not completely broken down in the brewing process,” the researchers explain. “If a vessel has been in contact with grain-based alcohol, we therefore expect to find two types of microscopically observable components. One is starch granules that have been modified by heat and enzymatic degradation processes. The other includes sugar and fermentation aids or their precursors, such as grain malt, typical molds such as Aspergillus, Rhizopus and Mucor, as well as herbs and yeasts. “
In fact, the analyzes showed that the 9,000-year-old drinking vessels from Qiaotou had residues of both starch granules and microbial fermentation aids. “Our results reveal that these vessels once held a type of beer – a fermented brew made from rice, a wild grain called Job’s teargrass (Coix lacryma-jobi)), and as yet unidentified plant tubers,” says Wang. Because the rice residues made up the largest proportion, it was probably an early variant of a rice beer. “This ancient brew probably tasted sweet, was only slightly fermented and cloudy in color,” says Wang.
Drinking as a social act
In view of the fact that the vessels were found in a burial mound and away from the settlement, the archaeologists assume that this rice beer was not an everyday drink for the people at the time. Instead, it was consumed on ritual occasions – in this case, most likely a funeral. Because drinking alcohol is a social act in many societies that has great cultural and political significance, as the researchers explain. In the hunter-gatherer community of Qiaotou, such ritual drinks may have helped to strengthen social bonds in the community. “Qiaotou provides us with an early example of social drinking from a pre-agricultural, egalitarian context,” said Wang and his team.
Source: Dartmouth College; Technical article: PLoS One, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0255833