3,000 -year -old beverage reveals details about alcohol production in China

Alcohol lovers will enjoy knowing this news: In 2010, a bronze piece in China was finally opened by researchers. There was an impressive content inside: A distilled beverage has been more than 3,000 years.

It is now considered the oldest alcohol produced in China. Discovery should change the knowledge of the production of such a fluid throughout the history of the country.

What was discovered?

In 2010, a owl -shaped container was revealed in the ruins of Daxinzhuang in Jinan, east of China. Archaeological finding is the dates from the end of the period of the Shang Dynasty, the second dynasty that occurred between 1600 and 1046 BC and has already been recorded in the history of the country.

In this type of vase, archaeologists defined a small amount of fluid, but decided not to open the container. This was due to the amount of rust covering the lid and body of the kitchenware.

Fifteen years after the finding, scientists finally revealed their contents. This occurred after Shandong University Environment and Social Archeology to be tested after sending an example to the Joint International Research Laboratory. The results showed that fluid contains ethanol, but does not contain sugar or protein – So, it wasn’t a fermented beverage that could be produced from fruit or rice.

Detected Tests A kind of liquor containing only water, ethanol, ethyl acetate and other componentsindicates that it is a kind of distilled drink.

For the researcher Fang Qi, the Dean of the University of Archeology, the new discovery fills a gap in the production of distilled beverages from the Shang Dynasty to the Han Dynasty in China. Therefore, it is a very relevant archaeological discovery.

China has a long history in alcohol production, but mainly uses cereals. Therefore, the new finding is important because it shows the first alcohol distillation record in the country for the first time.

This shows that such a process began at least a thousand years before researchers imagined. “The origin of China’s distilled wine has always been an important issue over the history of the science and technology of the country and wine culture.” He said.

The beverage survived in the captain because of the “seal” with the body of the vase and the rust preventing the evaporation of the liquid. It contributes to other findings related to the distillation processes of the Han dynasty.

History in China’s alcohol beverage production

Discovery has attracted a lot of attention because Zhou and Shang contributes to the information about alcoholic beverage processes throughout the dynasties. There are documents talking about it. One of which is also known as the “Ritual Book” and Zhouli, also known as “Zhou Officers”. It is said that the wine is served in bronze containers transported in bamboo baskets.

Until then, it turns out that the information mentioned in wine has mentioned a distilled but fermented beverage. Now, The new liquor found contributing to distillation tools previously discovered by archaeologists.But it was dated only since the Han Dynasty period.

Now, the new container finally reveals that distilled liquors were produced at least a thousand years ago when they were imagined in China, which is a revelation.

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