A bronze, owl-shaped vessel unearthed in 2010 from a Chinese tomb at the Daxinzhuang Ruins in Jinan, Shandong province, contained a clear liquid identified in 2024 as distilled liquor. The vessel dates back to the late Shang Dynasty (1600 B.C. to 1046 B.C.).
The artifact, located in Tomb M257, held a small amount of liquid that archaeologists initially could not access due to corrosion. The 15-year process of unsealing the vessel involved researchers at the International Joint Laboratory of Environmental and Social Archaeology Research at Shandong University.
Analysis of the liquid revealed the presence of water, ethanol, and ethyl acetate, but lacked sugar proteins or organic acids found in fermented wines. This confirmed it as distilled liquor, the oldest uncovered in China.
The discovery suggests distilled liquor production in China began much earlier than previously believed. Prior to this, distilled spirits were thought to have appeared around 2,000 years ago, possibly introduced during the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E. to 220 C.E.). The new finding pushes back the timeline by at least 1,000 years, offering new insights into Chinese alcohol production.
"Fruit wine and rice wine made by fermentation without distillation contain sugar and proteins in addition to ethanol. However, the liquid found this time does not contain sugar or proteins, which confirms that it is a distilled liquor," said Wu Meng, the lead author of the study and an associate researcher at the Shandong laboratory.