Summary
As many as 9,000 years ago, the Chinese were mixing a beverage of rice, honey and fruit which was a contemporary of the barley beer and grape wine produced in the Middle East. The discovery comes after the chemical analysis of ancient organics preserved in pottery jars from the village of Jiahu in Northern China. The international team of researchers also analyzed liquids more than 3,000 years old which had been preserved inside bronze vessels.
Original source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041219134133.htm
Details
Chemical analyses of ancient organics absorbed, and preserved, in pottery jars from the Neolithic village of Jiahu in Northern China have revealed that a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey and fruit was being produced as early as 9,000 years ago, approximately the same time that barley beer and grape wine were beginning to be made in the Middle East.
In addition, liquids more than 3,000 years old, remarkably preserved inside tightly lidded bronze vessels, were chemically analyzed.
The beverages had been flavored with herbs, flowers and/or tree resins.
The new discoveries, made by an international, multi-disciplinary team of researchers, including the University of Pennsylvania Museum's archaeochemist Patrick McGovern of the Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology, provide the first direct chemical evidence for early fermented beverages in ancient Chinese culture, thus broadening understanding of the key technological and cultural roles that fermented beverages played in China.
The prehistoric beverage at Jiahu, McGovern said, 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.
Both jiu and chang of proto-historic China were likely made by mold saccharification, a uniquely Chinese contribution to beverage-making in which an assemblage of mold species are used to break down the carbohydrates of rice and other grains into simple, fermentable sugars.
Yeast for fermentation of the simple sugars enters the process adventitiously, either brought in by insects or settling on to large and small cakes of the mold conglomerate, qu, from the rafters of old buildings.
That finding was followed up by the earliest chemically confirmed barley beer in 1992, inside another vessel from the same room at Godin Tepe that housed the wine jars.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, and he has created several downloadable courses on survival and preparedness, including his widely-downloaded course on personal safety and self-defense. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2010, Adams created TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural living video sharing site featuring thousands of user videos on foods, fitness, green living and more. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also the CEO of a highly successful email newsletter software company that develops software used to send permission email campaigns to subscribers. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and pursues hobbies such as martial arts, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
Have comments on this article? Post them here:
people have commented on this article.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Email this article to a friend
Share
this article on: 
