The prehistoric beverages at Jiahu paved the way for the unique cereal beverages that were found at Anyang, said Patrick McGovern from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. They are from the proto-historic in the second millennium BC.

McGovern is the chief American scientist involved in the research and a renowned wine brewing historian.

The vessels excavated from Anyang were sealed well for their day. And although the lids have long since corroded, evaporation was prevented.

Scientists believe the vessels and their contents - besides serving as burial goods to sustain the dead in the afterlife - also had links to funerals where the living hoped to communicate with the deceased's ancestors and gods, after drinking from them.

"The fragrant aroma of the liquids inside the tightly lidded jars and vats, when their lids were first removed after some 3,000 years, suggested that they indeed represented Shang and Western Zhou fermented beverages," McGovern noted.

Aroma is something McGovern is an authority on, having led the discovery of the earliest barley beer in 1992 in western Iran. The beer dates back to 3500-3100 BC. Two years later also in Iran, at another Neolithic site there was evidence of the then earliest wine, which dates to 5400 BC.

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