3000-Yr-Old Liquor Found in a Bronze, Owl-Shaped Vessel Awes Researchers; Possibly the Oldest Known Distilled Alcohol

Researchers got excited when they finally figured out what was inside the vessel they uncovered from a Shang Dynasty tomb in China. The tomb was unearthed in 2010 from the Daxinzhuang burial site at Jinan, stated All That's Interesting. Archaeologists located a vessel inside the tomb, and at that time could only describe the content inside it as a clear liquid. In 2024, after years of preservation and examination, the contents were identified as distilled liquor. The vessel was estimated to be 3,000 years old, making the mixture, the oldest known instance of distilled alcohol in the country's history.

The finding intrigued researchers, as it now pushes back the origin of liquor production by more than a millennium. The vessel was made of bronze and was owl-shaped in structure, stated experts. This container from Tomb M257 stood apart for archaeologists from the Jinan Institute of Archaeology, because of its remarkable condition even after millenniums and being one of the few owl vessels to be uncovered from the Shandong Province.
After analysis, researchers concluded that the vessel was built in the Shang Dynasty period. Initially, experts faced problems in analyzing the small amount of clear liquid they had detected in the container because they could not open the corroded lid without possible damage to the historical artifact. Experts believe that the container was tightly sealed at the time of burial and did not receive enough oxidization. Hence the lid and body garnered a thick layer of dust between each other, making it complicated for researchers to open it three millenniums later.
After 14 years of effort, researchers managed to open the vessel without causing any damage to the artifact. The liquid was collected and sent to the International Joint Laboratory of Environmental and Social Archaeology Research at Shandong University. Results indicated that the liquid was a mixture of water, ethyl acetate, ethanol, and other distillation products, all the ingredients of alcohol. The scientists did not notice any sugar proteins or organic acids, implying that the liquid wasn't fermented fruit or rice wine. These outcomes indicated that the liquid was distilled liquor, as per scientists.
"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," Wu Meng, an associate researcher at the Shandong laboratory explained.
Wine-making in China is an ancient affair, dating back to the Neolithic period (7000 B.C.E. – 1700 B.C.E.). But before this finding the oldest case of distilled alcohol in China was observed 2,000 years ago. Experts believe this kind of alcohol arrived in China through trade and was domesticated in the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E. – 220 C.E.). This finding pushes the date of the use of this alcohol in China further, challenging this belief. Researchers were ecstatic with the finding as the history of alcohol is an important subject for the country. "The origin of distilled liquor in China has always been an important topic in the study of the history of science, technology, and wine culture in the country," Wu Meng added.
Wine and the rituals associated with it that took place in China have been described extensively in two ancient books, the Yili (often translated as the Book of Etiquettes and Rites) and the Zhouli (translated as the Rites of Zhou), according to Popular Mechanics. As per the books, wine was typically served in bronze vessels. Until now, researchers believed that the wine mentioned in these books was non-distilled, this Shang Dynasty finding challenged the assertion.