China-US study replicates ancient rice wine identified from 10,000 years ago

Researchers from Stanford and Chinese Academy of Sciences affiliate find evidence that people were drinking mijiu far earlier than realised

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An international archaeological study at a site in ancient China’s Lower Yangtze region has found evidence that people have long been making wines out of rice. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:00pm, 12 Dec 2024

A group of international researchers has uncovered evidence that people in southeast China’s Zhejiang province were fermenting rice into the wine known as mijiu some 10,000 years ago – far earlier than previously thought.

The findings – from a Shangshan archaeological site in Pujiang county, part of ancient China’s Lower Yangtze region – mark “the earliest known alcohol fermentation technique in East Asia”, said the researchers, in a study published on Monday.

The research, which appeared in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed “the complexity and innovation of early rice wine brewing”, the team said.

“[It also] provides an important scientific basis for exploring the origins of rice agriculture, early social structures and technology diffusion in East Asia.”

The study was co-led by Liu Li, from Stanford University’s department of East Asian languages and cultures in the United States, and Zhang Jianping of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGG), an affiliate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Because wine is a volatile liquid that is difficult to preserve, let alone discover and study, the mystery of when and how winemaking technology originated and developed remains unsolved, according to an IGG said in a statement on Tuesday.