Fermented rice, honey and fruit beverage

What it is

Chemical residues in Jiahu jars of a mixed drink of rice, honey and hawthorn or wild grape, the oldest evidence of controlled alcoholic fermentation. It shows that fermentation accompanied agriculture from its beginning.

Jiahu also preserves bone flutes and incised signs on tortoise shells, sometimes cited as proto-writing (highly disputed).

What it led to

• Alcohol as a ritual, cohesive element in feasts
• Preservation of cereal calories in liquid form
• The tradition of rice wine and mould-based ferments (qu) in East Asia

Built on

• Rice domesticationc. 7500 BCE
• East Asian pottery
• Honey gathering

Made possible

• Grape wine and vine domesticationc. 6000 BCE
• Barley beerc. 3500 BCE
• Mould-based fermentation starter (qu)c. 1000 BCE
• Koji-mould sake brewing in Japanc. 716
• Hiire: heating sake to preserve it1568
• Rice wine

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