Scientists say the discovery of pottery shards dating from 7,000 BC in northern China indicate that Neolithic people in China may have been the first in the world to make wine.
Previously the oldest evidence of fermented beverages was dated to 5400 BC and was found at the Neolithic site of Hajji Firuz Tepe, in Iran.
The finding was made by Dr Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania, who claimed that laboratory tests on pottery jars from the village of Jiahu in Henan Province had shown traces of a mixed fermented drink of rice, honey, and either grapes or hawthorne fruit.
The molecular archeologist suggested that the Chinese developed fermented beverages even earlier than the Middle East, or perhaps at the same time.
The archeological site of Jiahu, in the Yellow River Basin, is renowned for its cultural and artistic relics.
(CRI December 7, 2004)
