2004/12/08 by Patrick E. McGovern, Juzhong Zhang, Jigen Tang +10 · 7 citations
Social Sciences · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Chinese history and philosophy #Botanical Studies and Applications #Ziziphus Jujuba Studies and Applications
paper · doi:10.1073/pnas.0407921102
openalex publication_date 2004/12/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
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.