Beer brewed in China more than 5,000 years ago, artifacts suggest

Newly discovered archeological artifacts suggest that beer brewing in China began more than 5,000 years ago.

Different types of pottery and pottery remnants, including wide-mouthed pots, funnels and amphorae, were found at the Mijiaya archeological site in northern China between 2004 and 2006. The artifacts were found in two pits that date back from 3400 to 2900 BC.

Potteries representing the three stages of beer making – brewing, filtration and storage – were among the pieces found with yellowish remnants inside. Alongside the pottery were stoves that were most likely used to heat and mash different grains used to make beer.

A microscopic analysis as well as the use of ion chromatography – a process that separates ions and molecules and is used in water chemistry analysis – found that some of the pottery pieces contained oxalate, a common by-product of beer.

“Beer was probably an important part of ritual feasting in ancient China,” said lead study author Jiajing Wang, of Stanford University. “So it’s possible that this finding of beer is associated with increased social complexity and changing events of the time.”

Traces of starch grains were found inside artifacts and husks were found inside the two pits, with tests revealing broomcorn millets, barley and Job’s tears, a grain native to Southeast Asia. The residual grains in some of the artifacts also revealed marks suggesting they had been mashed or malted.

The discovery of barley traces inside 5,000-year-old pottery pushes back the earliest known occurrence of the cereal grain in China by almost 1,000 years. This means that barley had been used as a beer-making ingredient before it became a staple for cooking.

According to Li Liu, a professor at Stanford University, the finding of the funnel-shaped vessel, used to pour newly-made beverages into containers, immediately stuck out as being related to beer brewing.

Wang hopes researchers will be able to fill in more of China’s beer-brewing timeline by seeking out and testing more pottery from other sites throughout the country.