It is official. Traces of the oldest known wine in the world have been confirmed by an international research team composed of Chinese, American and German scientists.
Through a barrage of tests that looked at ancient organic compounds preserved in pottery jars that were excavated from Neolithic relics at Jiahu in Central China's Henan Province, they were able to reveal that a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey and fruit was produced around 9,000 years ago.
This discovery pushes the Chinese history for making alcoholic drinks back by 4,000 years and claims the mantle as the world's earliest wine, beating the previous best by at least 1,000 years.
Also in Henan, known as the cradle of Chinese civilization, the scientists found liquids that were more than 3,000 years old and had been well preserved inside tightly closed bronze vessels.
Excavated from an elite burial area in the city of Anyang in the Yellow River Basin, the vessels date back to the Shang (1600-1046 BC) and Western Zhou dynasties (1046-771 BC).
They contained specialized rice and millet "wines." They had been flavoured with herbs, flowers and tree resins, and were similar to herbal wines described in the Shang Dynasty oracle inscriptions, according to researchers.
The researchers involved claim the discoveries from both sites provide the first direct chemical evidence for early fermented beverages in ancient Chinese culture, and will broaden the understanding of the key technological and cultural roles that fermented beverages played in China.
The discoveries were published in the December issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS.
Fragrant liquids
The prehistoric beverages at Jiahu paved the way for the unique cereal beverages that were found at Anyang, said Patrick McGovern from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. They are from the proto-historic in the second millennium BC.
McGovern is the chief American scientist involved in the research and a renowned wine brewing historian.
The vessels excavated from Anyang were sealed well for their day. And although the lids have long since corroded, evaporation was prevented.
Scientists believe the vessels and their contents -- besides serving as burial goods to sustain the dead in the afterlife -- also had links to funerals where the living hoped to communicate with the deceased's ancestors and gods, after drinking from them.
"The fragrant aroma of the liquids inside the tightly lidded jars and vats, when their lids were first removed after some 3,000 years, suggested that they indeed represented Shang and Western Zhou fermented beverages," McGovern noted.
Aroma is something McGovern is an authority on, having led the discovery of the earliest barley beer in 1992 in western Iran. The beer dates back to 3500-3100 BC. Two years later also in Iran, at another Neolithic site there was evidence of the then earliest wine, which dates to 5400 BC.
Universal phenomenon
Throughout history and around the globe, humans at every level of complexity discovered how to make fermented beverages from sugar sources available in their local habitats, according to McGovern.
The reason for such a widespread phenomenon of fermented beverages may have, he suggests, derived in part from ethanol's combined pain-relieving, disinfectant and profound mind-altering effects.
Moreover, fermentation helps to preserve and enhance the nutritional value of foods and beverages.
Because of their perceived multiple benefits, fermented beverages have played key roles in the development of human culture and technology, contributing to the advancement of agriculture, horticulture and food-processing techniques.
Among all strata of ancient society, they marked major events, from births to deaths, as well as victories, auspicious occasions and harvests, McGovern added.
The royal and the rich, particularly, were drawn to the beverages, the researchers noted in their PNAS article.
In certain cases, such celebrations could also develop into large-scale secular or religious ceremonies for the whole of society.
China is no exception but when McGovern started his collaboration with his Chinese counterparts in 2000, the questions were when and how.
Historical writings provided the first trace. Based on the oracle inscriptions from the late Shang Dynasty, the earliest texts from China, at least three beverages were distinguished: chang (a herbal wine), li (probably a sweet, low-alcoholic rice or millet beverage) and jiu (a fully fermented and filtered rice or millet beverage or "wine," with an alcoholic content of probably 10-15 per cent).
According to the inscriptions, the Shang palace administration included officials who made the beverages, which sometimes were inspected by the king.
Fermented beverages and other foods were offered as sacrifices to royal ancestors in various forms of bronze vessels, likely accompanied by elite feasting.
Later documents, incorporating traditions from the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC), describe another two beverages: luo, which was likely made from a fruit and lao, an unfiltered, fermented rice or millet beverage.
Pottery clues
A much earlier history of fermented beverages in China has long been hypothesized based on the shapes and styles of Neolithic pottery vessels, which are similar to the magnificent Shang Dynasty bronze vessels. The vessels were used to present and store fermented beverages.
McGovern and his Chinese collaborators concentrated their research on pottery from the Neolithic village of Jiahu, because it is some of the earliest known pottery in China.
The Chinese researchers, led by Zhang Juzhong, a professor from the University of Science and Technology of China, had carried out archaeological research around the site for decades.
The Jiahu area was already famous for yielding some of the earliest musical instruments and domesticated rice, as well as possibly the earliest Chinese pictographic writing.
Zhang and his colleagues found the pottery articles, one of the many discoveries they made that have rewritten the orthodox perspectives of China's early history.
McGovern took the lead in the chemical analyses of the residue elements absorbed in the pottery.
Through a variety of chemical methods including gas and liquid chromatography -- mass spectrometry and infrared spectrometry -- the so-called "finger-print compounds" were identified, including those for hawthorn fruit or wild grape, beeswax associated with honey and rice.
The most straightforward interpretation of the data, according to researchers, is that the Jiahu vessels contained a consistently processed beverage made from rice, honey and a fruit.
And because of the presence of the honey, they speculate that the drink must have been sweet and delicious.
Although the available chemical and archaeological evidence for the Jiahu jars points to the hypothesis that they were used to prepare and store a mixed fermented beverage, research showed that direct chemical evidence of alcohol was lacking, because the compound was volatile and susceptible to microbial attack.
But they believe the fermentation of the mixed ingredients can be inferred, because the "wine yeast" occurs in honey and on the skins of sugar-rich fruits.
Once the juice has been exuded from the fruit or the honey diluted down, yeast begins growing, within a day or two in warm conditions.
Samples of liquid inside vessels from Anyang and the Changzikou Tomb in Luyi County of Henan were also analyzed and the results point to their being fermented and filtered rice or millet "wines."
Specific aromatic herbs and flowers such as chrysanthemum in addition to tree resins, such as China fir, had been added to the wines, the researchers found.
They noted the chemical analysis revealed a uniquely Chinese contribution to beverage-making, called mold saccharification, in which an assembly of mold species are used to break down the carbohydrates of rice and other grains into simple, fermentable sugars.
It remains the traditional method for making fermented beverages in modern China, they noted.
(China Daily January 20, 2005)
