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Published online on December 8, 2004, 10.1073/pnas.0407921102

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Chemistry
Anthropology-Social Sciences
Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China

( archaeological chemistry | Neolithic period | Shang Dynasty | alcohol | saccharification )

Patrick E. McGovern *{dagger}, Juzhong Zhang {ddagger}, Jigen Tang {sect}, Zhiqing Zhang ¶, Gretchen R. Hall *, Robert A. Moreau ||, Alberto Nuñez ||, Eric D. Butrym **, Michael P. Richards {dagger}{dagger}, Chen-shan Wang *, Guangsheng Cheng {ddagger}{ddagger}, Zhijun Zhao {sect}, and Changsui Wang {ddagger}

*Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology (MASCA), University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA 19104; {ddagger}Department of Scientific History and Archaeometry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China; {sect}Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 100710, China; Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Henan Province, Zhengzhou 450000, China; ||Eastern Regional Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wyndmoor, PA 19038; **Firmenich Corporation, Princeton, NJ 08543; {dagger}{dagger}Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; and {ddagger}{ddagger}Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10080, China

Communicated by Ofer Bar-Yosef, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, November 16, 2004 (received for review September 30, 2003)

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.

Author contributions: P.E.M., G.R.H., R.A.M., A.N., M.P.R., and Z. Zhao designed research; P.E.M., G.R.H., R.A.M., A.N., M.P.R., C.-s.W., and Z. Zhao performed research; P.E.M., G.R.H., R.A.M., A.N., M.P.R., and Z. Zhao analyzed data; P.E.M., G.R.H., and M.P.R. wrote the paper; J.Z., J.T., and Z. Zhang advised on archaeological contexts and interpretation and provided samples; C.-s.W. translated and interpreted Chinese books and articles; G.C. advised on rice wine fermentation and amylolysis systems; and C.W. advised on research.

{dagger}To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Patrick E. McGovern, E-mail: mcgovern{at}sas.upenn.edu

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0407921102
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