“Liquor from 2,700 years ago in ancient Chinese tombs…the oldest fruit wine in East Asia”

A liquid relic found in an ancient tomb in China was analyzed and identified as a fruit wine made 2,700 years ago.

According to the Chinese newspaper network on the 18th, the research team of Professor Yi-min Yang of Archeological Anthropology at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently obtained this conclusion by analyzing the liquid and mud from the Beibai Tumulus with the Archaeological Research Institute in Shanxi Province .

The Bay Bayer Burial Mounds are nine tombs located in Yuanqi County, Shaanxi Province, and were excavated from April to December of last year and confirmed to be in the Ju Dynasty (1046 BC to 256 BC).

In addition, a liquid residue of about 7 liters was found in a copper jar in one of these tombs, and the possibility of alcohol was raised.

To confirm the composition, the researchers collected liquid residues and mud samples that were under the remains, measured biomarkers, and analyzed genes (DNA).

Li Jingfu, a member of the research team, confirmed that the liquid was a fruit wine, and assumed that the nobles at the time drank it.

In 2018, in Luoyang, Henan Province, China, wine in a bronze jug was found in a tomb that is believed to be in the mid-to-late period of the West Han period (202 BC to 8 BC), about 2,000 years ago.

The Chinese newspaper network pointed out, “It was believed that Chinese fruit wine production began after grapes were introduced from the West during the Han Dynasty, but this perception was broken.”

He then argued that it was “the earliest fruit wine identified in East Asia.”

Professor Yang explained, “Sake is an important part of traditional Chinese culture, and there are many relics related to alcohol such as wine glasses in Chinese civilization for thousands of years.”

“Because alcohol is volatile, it is rarely excavated, and only a small amount that was in a sealed container is valuable,” he said.

He also evaluated that “(with this discovery) it filled the gap in research on fruit wine in China in the pre-Jin Dynasty.”

In addition, he added, “It provides important information for the study of politics, culture, etiquette and funeral customs at the time. Important scientific data for research on the development of Chinese brewing technology.”

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