Ancient Chinese start to brew beer 5,000 years ago, shows new evidence
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Residues from the interior surface of Mijiaya funnel found in northern China. [Photo/Xinhua] |
They also found the presence of oxalate, a byproduct of beer brewing, in some of the artifacts, further supporting their use as brewing vessels.
"To our knowledge, our data provide the earliest direct evidence of in situ beer production in China, showing that an advanced beerbrewing technique was established around 5,000 years ago," Wang and colleagues wrote in their paper.
The study also included Li Liu of the Stanford University, Terry Ball of the Brigham Young University and Fulai Xing of the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology.
In addition, the identification of barley residues in the Mijiaya artifacts represents the earliest known occurrence of barley in China, pushing back the crop's advent in the country by about 1,000 years, they said.
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Gelatinised starch grains from Mijiaya funnel found in northern China. [Photo/Xinhua] |
Barley was first domesticated in Western Eurasia and later introduced into China, presumably through the Central Asian steppe, but the timing and nature of the crop's initial adoption in China is still not well understood.
The new study suggested that the crop may have been used as a beer-making ingredient long before it became an agricultural staple.
"The production and consumption of Yangshao beer may have contributed to the emergence of hierarchical societies in the Central Plain, the region known as 'the cradle of Chinese civilization,'" the paper said.
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