科学美国人60秒:Oldest Chinese Beer Brewery Found

Beer. It’s hugely popular today, but that’s nothing new: people have been drinking beer for thousands of years, all around the world. And now a brewing site some 5,000 years old has been found in China—the oldest ever found there by a millennium. The remains offer clues not only to ancient tastes, but to ancient agricultural practices as well.
啤酒!现在啤酒大受欢迎，这并不是什么新鲜事了：数千年来，世界各地的人们一直在喝啤酒。如今，在中国发现了一个5000年前的酿酒地点——这是迄今为止发现的最古老的酒窖了。这古老的酒窖为我们呈现的浓郁的酒香还有古老的农业实践。

We had information about ancient Chinese beer brewing from inscriptions on what are known as oracle bones—pieces of bone or shell used to try to tell the future. But researchers at a late Neolithic site in northern China have much more successfully revealed the past. They came upon two pits in the excavation that seemed like they were used for brewing. The scientists thought the shape of the pots would lend themselves to the three stages of making beer: first brewing, then filtering, and finally storage.
从古代的甲骨文上——人们在骨头或者贝壳上刻字用以告诉子孙后代——我们知道了古代中国酿造啤酒的信息。但是，新石器时代晚期中国北方的研究人员们收获的成就更大。他们来到两个用于酿酒的酒窖中。科学家认为锅的形状似乎呈现了三个酿酒的步骤：首先，酿造;其次，过滤;最后，存储。

So they analyzed the yellowish residue on the inside of the pots. They found remnants of starch grains—millet, barley, and another grain called Job’s tears. They also found the remains of tubers such as yams.
然后研究人员分析了锅里淡黄色的残渣。他们发现这些剩下的谷物颗粒——小米、大麦、薏苡。研究人员还发现了山药块茎的残留物。

And the grains had damage associated with brewing. Some had pits and channels on the surface, which would come from the sprouting process during malting. Many had swollen and merged with other grains, which would happen during mashing when grains are heated in water. The team found other chemical signatures that point to beer as well.
谷物有酿造酒的质量有关。有些谷粒表面坑洼不平，根源要追究到其萌芽过程。当用热水加热，捣碎时，所有的谷物就会膨胀。因此研究人员发现了啤酒的其他化学特征。

The research is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
该研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院学报》。

The scientists say that the find demonstrates that by 5,000 years ago the Chinese had developed a complicated recipe and process for fermenting beer. The find also represents the earliest barley ever found in China. And the researchers believe that barley was first introduced to the region to make alcoholic beverages rather than for food. And that the particular beer they found evidence for might have played a role in the feasts of the emerging complex society in the region—one also known as “the cradle of Chinese civilization.”
科学家表示，这一发现表明，在5000年前，中国人就已经研发了复杂精细的啤酒酿造方法。该研究结果也表明，中国最早发现大麦。研究人员认为，大麦是作为酒精饮料首次，而非食物首次引入该地区。研究人员发现的这些特定的啤酒，在中国新兴的社会文化——即“中国文明的摇篮”——中占据了重要的地位!

Cheers!
干杯!