I thought this was a fun little story. You may not like it as much as I did, but I enjoyed the discovery and thinking of this little owl holding onto a secret stash for thousands of years. What a good little guardian!
For more than 3,000 years, China’s oldest-known distilled spirit remained hidden inside a bronze, owl-shaped vessel unearthed within a Shang Dynasty tomb.
Discovered in 2010 in Jinan, China, the vessel contained a mysterious clear liquid. After 15 years of preservation and study, it was, in 2024, identified as distilled liquor - the earliest-known example in China’s history.
This remarkable discovery has pushed the history of liquor production in China back by more than a millennium.
In December 2010, archaeologists from the Jinan Institute of Archaeology found a bronze, owl-shaped vessel at the Daxinzhuang burial site in Jinan, Shandong Province. Located in Tomb M257, the container was in remarkably good condition and stood out as one of only a few owl vessels ever discovered in the province.
Researchers discovered that the vessel dates back more than 3,000 years, to the Shang Dynasty period of 1600 to 1046 B.C.E…
At the time of the vessel’s discovery, archaeologists noted that it contained a small amount of clear liquid but were unable to completely open it due to the corrosion of the lid. At the time of its burial, the vessel was tightly sealed and not fully oxidized. A thick layer of rust glued the two pieces together, making it difficult for researchers to analyze its contents without harming this historic artifact.
After 14 years, researchers carefully separated the lid from the rest of the container, finally revealing its contents in their entirety.
The mysterious liquid was sent to the International Joint Laboratory of Environmental and Social Archaeology Research at Shandong University for examination. Its examination revealed the presence of water, ethanol, ethyl acetate, and other distillation products.
However, it did not contain sugar proteins or organic acids used in fermented fruit and rice wine. Researchers were ecstatic to hear that the liquid was most likely distilled liquor, the oldest ever found in China.
The rest of the article is mainly on the history of brewing in China and it also has a shot of the back of the pit but it’s pretty plain.
There are many materials called bronze. Being primarily copper and mixed with tin is the only given with bronze, otherwise they’d call it something else. Google tells me Chinese bronze of this time had a good bit of lead in it as well. From the details I added in the longer reply here, it sounds like the tomb was submerged, so the seal from rust/oxidation likely happened quickly, especially if the pH of the water was much off of neutral. But those are way more archaeological/metallurgical/geological things than I think I can attempt to answer.
It’s an excellent answer! :)
I’ll always give you the best one I can!