A rare discovery from northern China is providing researchers with a rare glimpse into what people in the Qin state were drinking more than 2,200 years ago.
Scientists have found the contents of a liquid-filled bronze vessel unearthed from a Warring States-period tomb revealing it was likely a cereal-based alcoholic drink brewed using techniques that show a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of fermentation.
The vessel was unearthed from the Shanjiabao cemetery at Ningxia, where archaeologists have excavated more than 180 tombs dating back to the Warring States period (475-221 BC). Among the finds was a bronze bottle with a garlic-shaped neck, a kind of vessel commonly associated with Qin culture.
What is remarkable is that the vessel still contained liquid. When researchers opened the seal carefully they found 3.7 litres of clear blue-green liquid and some sediment. The liquid was odourless and the state of preservation of the liquid was a very special opportunity for scientific study.
Researchers used chemical and microscopic methods to determine what had survived inside the vessel. The results pointed overwhelmingly towards an alcoholic beverage made out of cereal grains.
As for the chemical signatures, amino acids, fatty acids and carbohydrates were detected in the analysis. Also, researchers found high levels of lactic acid and oxalic acid, common ingredients in fermentation. Together, these chemical signatures indicated that what was in the vessel was not simply water but a deliberately brewed drink.
The sediment provided further clues. Microscopic examination showed traces of starch grains and phytoliths linking the beverage with broomcorn millet and members of the Triticeae family, probably wheat or barley. These ingredients are in line with what we already know about farming in northern China, where millet has been a mainstay of food production for thousands of years.
The study also sheds light on how the drink was made. The brewers used qu, a standard fermentation starter made from mould-inoculated grains or herbs. This technique, still an important one in Chinese brewing today, requires controlled fermentation and is evidence of a relatively high level of technological skills.
According to the authors, they found that people living in the Qin state had already developed advanced brewing methods by the late Warring States period. Rather than following natural fermentation, they seem to have understood how to manipulate microbial processes to produce alcoholic beverages with specific characteristics.
Alcohol has a long history in China. Archaeological evidence suggests fermented drinks were being produced as early as 10,000 years ago, making China one of the world’s earliest brews. But many of those discoveries are based on chemical traces absorbed into pottery fragments. Intact liquids are far rarer, making the Shanjiabao find particularly significant.
Because the liquid itself survived, researchers were able to get a much more complete picture of the liquid itself as well as its composition and production. The study incorporates several scientific approaches, and so the team was able to go beyond a single line of study, and instead of looking at one line of research to cross-check the chemistry and microfossils.
The research does more than identify an ancient alcoholic drink; it provides insights into everyday life in the Qin state. It gives insight into how agricultural products were processed, how individualised brewing knowledge emerged and alcoholic beverages might have been associated with social and ceremonial activities during such a crucial period in Chinese history.
More than two millennia after it was sealed inside a bronze vessel, the drink has been an unexpected window into the tastes, technologies and traditions of one of ancient China’s most influential states.
Sources : Science Direct – https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.105738
