Mysterious liquid believed to be wine from Warring States period

According to the Shaanxi Cultural Relic Bureau, archaeologists have found some liquid in a bronze kettle inside a tomb dating from the Qin Dynasty in Poliu Village of Xianyang, Shaanxi province. The liquid has been sent to a research institute for further study.

Xie Gaowen, a research associate at Xianyang Archaeological Institute, said that the bronze kettle is believed to have been a wine vessel in the ancient times. Archaeologists speculated that there was a cork on the kettle but it had carbonized and disappeared. The liquid did not volatilize because the kettle was sealed by soil.

It would not be the first time that archaeologists have found wine in the tombs in central Shaanxi region. From March to June in 2003, archaeologists found three large tombs and 17 large bronze kettles. Two of them stored 26 kilograms of green, clear liquid. Experts said the liquid contained alcohol and it was the best-preserved wine found that dates back 2, 000 years ago.

On Oct.30, 2009, villagers in Mei County dug up some pots containing liquid, which was later authenticated as wine by the Biology Institute of Chinese Academy of Science in Chengdu. The wine is 200 years older than the wine found in March 2003 in Xi'an.

At the end of 2010, Shaanxi Archaeological Institute found some "suspected wine," which was 2,400 years old and sealed in a bronze kettle.

Xie Gaowen said more works need to be done to decide whether the mysterious liquid is wine from the Warring States Period.