How long have we been acquainted with alcohol? Turns out we’ve been acquainted with the beverage way before the dawn of some of the oldest civilizations in the world. Researchers have found ancient pots at a burial site at Qiaotou in Southern China. These pots are said to date back 9,000 years, and the microfossil residues found in these pots suggest that they were used to hold beer made of rice.
Because these beer vessels were found near an ancient burial site, the researchers believe that the beer was used in ceremonies which honored the dead.
The beer inside the pots were not the only ones that were deemed special; the pots themselves were special, too.
The ancient pots were discovered in a platform mound, which was surrounded by a human-made ditch, based on ongoing excavations at Qiaotou. No residential structures were found at the site. The mound contained two human skeletons and multiple pottery pits with high-quality pottery vessels. As the study reports, these artifacts are probably some of “the earliest known painted pottery in the world.” No pottery of this kind has been found at any other sites dating to this time period.
(Image Credit: Leping Jiang)
#Alcohol #Beer #Fermentation #AncientChina #Culture #Archeology #BeerMaking #Rituals #Ceremonies #AncientCivilization
(Image Credit: Leping Jiang)
(Image Credit: Leping Jiang)
(Image Credit: PLOS ONE)