2,200-year-old alcohol found sealed inside ancient tomb — and there’s nearly a gallon of it

Researchers in China recently uncovered a very unusual find: a large bottle containing an alcoholic drink buried for more than 2,200 years.

The ancient alcohol was found sealed in a bronze vessel in a Qin tomb at the Shanjiabao cemetery in China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The findings were published in the June issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

The tomb dates to the Warring States period (475-221 B.C.), a turbulent era of rival kingdoms before China's first unification.

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The preserved liquid was determined to be an ancient cereal-based alcoholic beverage, a fermented grain drink sometimes loosely described as "beer."

Unlike other recent discoveries in which archaeologists found only residue from ancient drinks, the bottle contained an impressive 3,740 milliliters, or 3.74 liters, of preserved liquid.

The researchers were surprised when they encountered the liquid, said Ruru Chen, a researcher at Northwest University's School of Cultural Heritage in Xi'an, China.

"What surprised us even more was the very large volume and the exceptional state of preservation," Chen told Fox News Digital.

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"Considering that this sample dates to the Warring States period, such a good level of preservation is extremely rare."

There was "no noticeable odor and a small amount of sediment at the bottom," she added, and the liquid "appeared clear and light blue-green."

It was found in a bronze bottle with a "garlic-shaped mouth," which Chen said was commonly used by the Qin people to hold alcoholic beverages.

"By combining evidence from organic chemistry, metabolomics, starch grain analysis, yeast remains and other microscopic analyses, we can directly identify the type of beverage once stored inside the vessel and even reconstruct how it was brewed," she said.

"To our knowledge, this represents one of the largest volumes of alcoholic beverage residue ever recovered from a Warring States-period archaeological sample, making it an exceptionally rare discovery."

Based on starch grain analysis, researchers found the beverage was brewed primarily from broomcorn millet, with a smaller contribution from wheat and/or barley, Chen said.

Researchers identified high concentrations of lactic and oxalic acids, along with dozens of other organic compounds consistent with an ancient cereal-based alcoholic beverage.

"Therefore, it would have been most similar to a non-distilled alcoholic beverage made from millet, or from a mixture of millet and wheat/barley," she said.

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"It would not have resembled a distilled spirit."

Looking ahead, researchers are still hoping to solve some unanswered questions, including why the liquid survived so well for two millennia.

"The relatively dry local environment may have played an important role, but we also suspect that factors such as the bronze vessel itself, its sealing method and the burial conditions contributed to its preservation," Chen said.

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"These are questions we hope to investigate further in future research."

Researchers also hope that the discovery "will encourage greater interest in the study of ancient Chinese alcoholic beverages and traditional brewing techniques," Chen said.

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The research follows a similar recent discovery, when researchers in China uncovered evidence of ancient fermented beverages at a Bronze Age cemetery in northwestern China.

Researchers found microscopic residue inside pottery vessels, shedding light on how people brewed beer-like drinks from millet, rice, wheat and barley more than 3,000 years ago.