ANCIENT FERMENTED BEVERAGES: East and West Along the Silk Road

Archaeological Chemistry--or Molecular Archaeology--holds out the promise of opening up whole new vistas on the ancient world. Using highly sensitive instruments, microgram quantities of biomarkers can now be identified, thus enabling new light to be shed on ancient foods, beverages, and other organic material.

Patrick McGovern, Senior Research Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, will illustrate this approach by drawing on his research on ancient barley beer and grape wine in the Near East. He will look at the earliest chemically identified and published examples of these beverages from Iran (ca. 5500 B.C.)--one end of the Silk Road. In China--at the other end of the Silk Road--recently published evidence indicates tha beverage-making using rice, fruit (grape and/or hawthorn fruit), and honey was used to make a mixed fermented beverage as early as 7000 B.C.