Revisiting Jiahu’s 9000-Year-Old Fermented Beverage: New Microfossil Evidence for Early Qu-Based and Malt-Based Brewing Technologies in North China

The Jiahu site (ca. 9000–7500 cal. BP) in the Huai River valley has yielded the earliest reported evidence of fermented alcoholic beverages in China. Previous chemical residue analyses interpreted these beverages as a mixture of rice, honey, and fruit, differing markedly from brewing traditions documented at other Neolithic sites in China. To reassess Jiahu brewing practices, we analyzed microfossils preserved in residues from 16 pottery sherds. The residues contained abundant starch granules, phytoliths, and fungal remains, including Monascus cleistothecia, hyphae, and yeast cells, together with starch damage patterns resulting from enzymatic hydrolysis, mashing, and cooking-induced gelatinization. Plant remains included rice, Panicoideae and Triticeae cereals, Job’s tears, foxnut, underground storage organs (USOs), and other taxa. Rice starches and Monascus remains were the most ubiquitous components, indicating that rice and Monascus formed the basis of qu-based brewing, while evidence consistent with malt saccharification was also identified. Together with previous chemical analyses, these findings suggest that Jiahu brewing relied primarily on qu-based saccharification, with contributions from malt-based processing, while honey and fruits may have supplied additional fermentable sugars. Integrating chemical and microfossil evidence provides a robust framework for reconstructing ancient brewing technologies.