A Symbiotic Relationship between People, Plants, and Microbes: A Case Study on the Fermented Beverages from the Chahekou Site in North China during the Middle Neolithic Period

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Drinking Beer in a Blissful Mood: A Global Archaeology of Beer" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The making of fermented beverages is a complex process through the interaction among people, plants, and microorganisms, among other abiotic factors. In this process, microbes, as the primary catalyst, get all the agents gradually entangled in the fermentation process. During the middle Neolithic, there was an evident population movement from the Central Plains to the north region of China in today’s Inner Mongolia. Previous archaeological studies have revealed the similarities between the ceramic utensils in north China and their counterparts in the Central Plains. Nevertheless, our recent microfossil analysis has also examined a northward spread of fermented beverage technology along with plant food exploitation, which helps form a symbiotic relationship between people, plants, and microbes in food and drink practices.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Drinking Beer in a Blissful Mood: A Global Archaeology of Beer   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36132.0