Here’s some archaeology Agitator readers will appreciate: Patrick McGovern, an archaeo-chemist at the University of Pennsylvania, has discovered the earliest chemical evidence yet for alcoholic brewing. By analyzing shards of Chinese pottery from about 9,000 years ago he and his team have uncovered traces of tartaric acid, indicating that the vessels once held a “mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey and a fruit.” The ingredients are comparable to 3,000 year old liquids found in sealed containers elsewhere in the region.

Full story on SciAm and the BBC.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 9th, 2004 at 3:11 pm by Mystery Man and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.