Stanford researchers discovered residue on ancient Chinese pottery that pointed to an early brewing process.
Researchers at Stanford University determined that a mysterious straw-colored residue found on ancient Chinese pottery are the remnants of fermented malt. The study was conducted on behalf of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
In 2005, archaeologists exhumed the pottery from the site of Mijaya. Not until 2012 were the site’s findings reported. Then Standford archaeologist Li Liu presumed the artefacts were used to create beer.
The discovered remnants were within a larger area, a Yangshao site, belonging to the Yangshao Period between 3400 and 2900 B.C. Not only the residue but the pottery’s characteristics suggest that remains were used for fermentation; they were wide-mouthed and shaped like a funnel. More detailed analysis revealed that unusual ingredients were used: barley, broomcorn millets and Job’s tears, as well as bits of bulbous root vegetables such as snake gourd root, yam and lily.
More detailed analysis revealed that unusual ingredients were used: barley, broomcorn millets and Job’s tears, as well as bits of bulbous root vegetables such as snake gourd root, yam and lily. And their methods weren’t that foreign to today’s methods reported in The Los Angeles Times. And the ancient brewers added tubers made of snake gourd, yam, and lily to sweeten the brew.
But the earliest written account of brewing in China wouldn’t reveal itself until the Shang Dynasty between 1250 and 1046 B.C. Scholars have surmised for years that the Yangshao culture brewed beer but evidence was insufficient until recently according to Jiajing Wang a fellow Standford researcher who led the analysis. These findings point to a new conclusion that the Mijiaya site hosted China’s first brewery.
The 5,000-year-old beer traces clued Wang and her team into the tools used for fermenting beer, the study’s authors noted. Investigators were stupefied that the brew’s ingredients included barley, Wang said. Barley would not evolve to a staple crop until another 3,000 years according current records.
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