“99银河”考古发现显示中国五千年前已开始酿造啤酒

HONG KONG — China is abuzz with craft brewing, with small-scale operations popping up around the country and churning out beer tasting of everything from goji berries to green tea. 香港——在中国，精酿啤酒正在沦为一种风尚，小型精酿作坊在全国各地争相冒出有，酿造从枸杞到绿茶等各种口味的啤酒。But like many things in China, what’s new isn’t that new. In this case, it’s about 5,000 years old.但是就像中国的很多东西一样，新的风尚只不过古已有之。约5000年前，中国人就早已在酿造啤酒了。

A group of researchers in China and the United States have analyzed pottery vessels discovered at a site in Shaanxi Province and determined that they are the first direct evidence of a beer-brewing operation. And the ingredients they discovered are as eclectic as any trendy brewpub’s: broomcorn millet, tubers and a grain known as Job’s tears.中国和美国的研究人员对陕西省找到的一批陶器展开了分析，证明它们是啤酒酿造活动的首个必要证据。他们在陶器里找到了黍、根茎作物和薏米的成分，这样不拘一格的选材可以和当下的时髦啤酒酿造坊相媲美。The scholars’ paper, which was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), says the mix of ingredients was probably achieved through trial and error. The tubers, which included snake gourd root, contribute starch and sugars for fermentation and also add a sweet flavor to the beer, they wrote. 他们的论文本周公开发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》（Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences，全称PNAS）上，研究者称之为这种成分构成有可能是通过大大试错的方法取得的。

他们写到，根茎还包括丝瓜根，它可以增进淀粉和糖分烘烤，给啤酒加到香甜口味。The study was based on analysis of a “beer-making tool kit” that includes a funnel, shards of pots and amphorae, and a pottery stove that would have been used for mashing. Radiocarbon dating of the Mijiaya site near the Chan River in Shaanxi Province dates it to 3400 to 2900 B.C.这项研究的对象是一个“啤酒制作器物套件组”，其中还包括一个细管、一些阔口罐和小口钝底瓶的碎片，还有一个用作淀粉糖简化的陶灶。根据放射性碳测年技术的测量，陕西省陈河附近的米家崖遗址介于公元前3400年到公元前2900年之间。

A yellowish residue from inside the funnel and pot shards was analyzed to discern the ingredients. The starches showed signs of damage that resemble what happens in the process of beer brewing, the authors said.他们对细管和壶碎片上发黄的残留物展开分析，分辨它的成分。结果找到，残留物中所含很多经常出现受损迹象的淀粉粒，与酿酒过程中淀粉粒的受损特征类似于。“It makes a very convincing case that this was a beer-making facility,” Patrick McGovern, scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, told the blog PNAS Journal Club. He was not involved in the study. “这是很有说服力的证据，解释它们是酿酒器物，”宾夕法尼亚大学博物馆(University of Pennsylvania Museum)生物分子考古项目的科学主管帕特里克·麦戈文(Patrick McGovern)对PNAS Journal Club博客说道。

他没参予这项研究。The presence of barley, which did not become an important subsistence crop until the Han dynasty, 3,000 years later, led the authors to suggest that alcohol production was an important reason for the grain’s introduction from western Eurasia, where it was first domesticated.大麦首先最初是在欧亚大陆被驯养的，在中原，直到3000年之后的汉代，大麦才沦为了一种最重要口粮作物，所以作者们指出，酿酒是中原从西域引进大麦的一个最重要原因。“Beer was probably an important part of ritual feasting in ancient China,” one of the study’s authors, Jiajing Wang of Stanford University, told the Journal Club. “So it’s possible that this finding of beer is associated with increased social complexity and changing events of the time.”“啤酒有可能是中国古代仪式盛宴的最重要组成部分，”这篇论文的作者之一、斯坦福大学考古专业博士生王佳静告诉他Journal Club博客。

“我们在古代中原地区找到的酒，可以和当时再次发生的社会变化联系一起。”Although the brew remnants that were discovered are truly ancient, they are not the oldest that have been uncovered in China. Mr. McGovern and a team of scholars from China, Germany and the United States wrote a 2004 paper for PNAS that analyzed 9,000-year-old pottery jars found in a neolithic village site in Henan Province called Jiahu. Based on their analysis, the jars held a rice, honey and fruit beverage. 虽然他们找到的这些酿造残留物的确来自古代，但却不是已找到的中国最古老的这类遗迹。在2004年的一篇PNAS论文中，麦戈文和一个由中国、德国和美国学者构成的团队对一些有9000年历史的陶罐展开过分析，它们来自河南省一个名为贾湖的新石器时代村落遗址。

据他们分析，这些陶罐曾盛载过用水稻、蜂蜜和水果酿造的饮料。Mr. McGovern worked with Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware to recreate that recipe in a beverage known as Chateau Jiahu. 麦戈文与特拉华州的角鲨头啤酒坊(Dogfish Head Brewery)合作，复原了这个古代配方，用它酿造了一种取名为“贾湖城”(Chateau Jiahu)的饮料。

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