“Ancient Secrets Unveiled: 3,000-Year-Old Liquor Discovered in Mysterious Owl Vessel from Shang Dynasty Tomb!”
“Fruit wine and rice wine made by fermentation without distillation contain sugar and proteins in addition to ethanol. However, the liquid found this time does not contain sugar or proteins, which confirms that it is a distilled liquor,” Wu Meng, an associate researcher at the Shandong laboratory and leader of the study, explained to News China.
The Early History Of Distilling In Ancient China
Public DomainThe Shang Dynasty is renowned for its technological advancements, including the use of bronze weaponry and the introduction of war chariots, such as this example from 1200 B.C.E.
The Shang Dynasty is best remembered as the first archaeologically-rich dynasty in Chinese history. Historians tend to point to this dynasty as the beginning of traditional Chinese history, a theory supported by archaeological findings and ancient writings.
The earliest examples of Chinese writing originate in this dynasty alongside ceramics made of bronze, jade, and stone that still survive to this day.
However, one thing the Shang Dynasty was not known for was the making of distilled liquor. While wine-making dates as far back as the Neolithic period (7000 B.C.E. – 1700 B.C.E.), distilled liquor remained unseen until roughly 2,000 years ago. Historians believed that distilled spirits were brought to China through trade and created domestically beginning in the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E. – 220 C.E.).
Wikimedia CommonsCheng Tang, the first king of the Shang Dynasty.
This most recent finding has turned this belief on its head, pushing back the creation of distilled liquor in China by at least 1,000 years.
