Good vintage? Ancient bronze vessel found in China may have held 2,000-year-old wine
- Archaeologists make discovery at cluster of tombs uncovered by construction workers in Henan province
- Other valuable funeral objects dug up include 20 pieces of burial jade and relics that could be ‘national treasures’ of significance
Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient bronze vessel in central China that they believe was still holding 3.5 litres of wine from 2,000 years ago.
It was one of two wine vessels found in a cluster of ancient tombs discovered by workers at a construction site in Luoyang, Henan province in September, The Beijing News reported on Tuesday.
Two hundred of the tombs are thought to be from the late Western Han dynasty (206BC-AD8), and excavation work is still in progress at the site.
The bronze vessels – one empty and the other full of liquid – were found in a side chamber of one of the tombs, Pan Fusheng, deputy researcher of the Luoyang City Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute, told the newspaper.
“The pot felt very heavy when we moved it – we guessed it might be wine,” Pan was quoted as saying, adding that the 3.5 litres of liquid was then decanted into a glass vessel.
The researcher said they believed it was a wine made from fermented grain and produced in the same period as the tomb, which would be confirmed by analysing samples of the “extremely precious” liquid. Such wine was consumed by Chinese nobility in ancient times.
But Pan did not recommend that anyone tries to drink the potentially 2,000-year-old wine.