Traces of 10,000-Year-Old Rice Beer Found in China

The Shangshan culture in ancient China’s Lower Yangzi region is central to understanding the origins of rice domestication and early alcohol fermentation. To address these issues, researchers examined artifacts from the early phase of the Shangshan site, dating back to ca. 10,000 to 9,000 years ago. By analyzing microscopic remains, including phytoliths, starch granules, and fungi, associated with pottery vessels, they found evidence suggesting that the Shangshan people not only used rice as a staple food but also as a raw material for brewing fermented beverages, marking the earliest known alcohol fermentation technique in East Asia.

The origins of rice domestication have undergone extensive archaeological scrutiny and discussion in recent years.

Archaeologists generally agree, based on existing data, that the earliest stages of rice domestication occurred in China’s Lower and Middle Yangzi River region.

The Shangshan culture in Zhejiang represents a region where early rice domestication emerged.

Although the degree of rice domestication is still under investigation, recent studies suggest that this process began early.

In a new study, Professor Leping Jiang from the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and colleagues addressed issues related to the material and social mechanisms that may have played an important role in the early Shangshan rice exploitation and alcohol brewing.

The researchers analyzed microfossil remains associated with pottery vessels from the earliest phase of the Shangshan site.

“These sherds were associated with various vessel types, including those for fermentation, serving, storage, cooking, and processing,” Professor Jiang said.

“We conducted microfossil extraction and analysis on residues from the inner surfaces of the pottery as well as the pottery clay and surrounding cultural layer sediments.”

“We focused on identifying phytoliths, starch granules, and fungi, providing insights into the pottery’s uses and the food processing methods employed at the site,” said Stanford University’s Professor Li Liu.

The analysis of phytoliths revealed a significant presence of domesticated rice phytoliths in the residues and pottery clay.

“This evidence indicates that rice was a staple plant resource for the Shangshan people,” said Professor Jianping Zhang, a researcher with the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“Evidence also showed that rice husks and leaves were used in pottery production, further demonstrating the integral role of rice in Shangshan culture.”

The researchers found a variety of starch granules in the pottery residues, including rice, Job’s tears, barnyard grass, Triticeae, acorns, and lilies.

Many of the starch granules exhibited signs of enzymatic degradation and gelatinization, which are characteristic of fermentation processes.

The scientists also uncovered abundant fungal elements, including Monascus molds and yeast cells, some of which displayed developmental stages typical of fermentation.

These fungi are closely associated with qu starters used in traditional brewing methods, such as those used in producing hongqujiu (red yeast rice wine) in China.

The team analyzed the distribution of Monascus and yeast remains across different pottery vessel types, observing higher concentrations in globular jars compared to a cooking pot and a processing basin.

This distribution suggests that vessel types were closely linked to specific functions, with globular jars purposely produced for alcohol fermentation.

The findings suggest that the Shangshan people employed broad-spectrum subsistence strategies during the early phases of rice domestication and used pottery vessels, particularly globular jars, to brew qu-based rice alcoholic beverages.

The emergence of this brewing technology in the early Shangshan culture was closely linked to rice domestication and the warm, humid climate of the early Holocene.

“Domesticated rice provided a stable resource for fermentation, while favorable climatic conditions supported the development of qu-based fermentation technology, which relied on the growth of filamentous fungi,” Professor Liu said.

To rule out potential contamination from soil, the authors analyzed sediment control samples, revealing significantly fewer starch and fungal remains in these samples than in pottery residues.

This finding reinforces the conclusion that the residues were directly associated with fermentation activities.

Modern fermentation experiments using rice, Monascus, and yeast further validated the findings by demonstrating morphological consistency with the fungal remains identified on Shangshan pottery.

“These alcoholic beverages likely played a pivotal role in ceremonial feasting, highlighting their ritual importance as a potential driving force behind the intensified utilization and widespread cultivation of rice in Neolithic China,” Professor Liu said.

“The evidence of rice alcohol fermentation at Shangshan represents the earliest known occurrence of this technology in East Asia, offering new insights into the complex interplay between rice domestication, alcoholic beverage production, and social formation during the early Holocene in China.”

The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Li Liu et al. 2024. Identification of 10,000-year-old rice beer at Shangshan in the Lower Yangzi River valley of China. PNAS 121 (51): e2412274121; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2412274121