Identification of 10,000-year-old rice beer at Shangshan in the Lower Yangzi River valley of China
Li Liu, Jianping Zhang, Jingbo Li, Yahui He, Zhongzhe Gao, Leping Jiang · 2024
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Description
Ten thousand years ago, people in China's Lower Yangzi River valley were already brewing rice beer, according to traces left in old pottery. Li Liu and five co-authors report that finding in this 2024 study of the Shangshan site, one of the earliest farming settlements in the region. They read three kinds of microfossil evidence left inside the vessels.
Plant crystals, starch grains, and fungi in the pottery show rice was both a staple food and a brewing base. The brew used a starter with mold and yeast, and mixed rice with Job's tears, other grains, acorn, and lily. The team calls it the earliest known alcohol method in East Asia. They link its rise to early rice farming and a warm, wet climate, and suggest the beer served at ritual feasts.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Li Liu, Jianping Zhang, Jingbo Li, Yahui He, Zhongzhe Gao, Leping Jiang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2024 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 41 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |