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China has a 9000-year-long history of cereal-based alcohol production, with the use of molds (filamentous fungi) likely being one of the earliest fermentation techniques. This method later developed into the uniquely East Asian qu (koji) starter compound, containing grains, molds, yeasts, and bacteria. Recent studies have revealed that this method was already widely applied during the Neolithic period. However, much less is known about its development during the early dynastic times, and our knowledge of this innovation has mainly relied on textual materials. Here, we present direct evidence, based on microbotanical, microbial, and chemical analyses, for the fermentation method of a 2300-year-old liquid preserved in a sealed bronze bottle unearthed in a Qin tomb at Yancun, Shaanxi. The results of this research suggest that this liquid is likely a fermented beverage made from wheat/barley, rice, Job's tears, broomcorn millet, and pulses. The fermentation starter may have been a cereal-based qu, consisting of a wide range of microorganisms, including molds (Aspergillus and Monascus), yeasts, and bacteria. Our findings suggest that the tradition of selecting suitable grains and microbial communities for brewing alcohol, possibly with a maiqu starter (primarily wheat/barley-based qu), may have been well established more than two thousand years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The glass compound eye bead is the exquisite embodiment of the glassmaking technology of ancient craftsmen, and is an example of the cultural exchange between China and the West during the Warring States Period. This study takes two dots and mesh beads with seriously weathered surfaces excavated from Hejia village, Zhouling as the research object. Micromorphology, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), microscopic laser Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were respectively used to determine the chemical elements, valence states and compositions of the glass matrix and its weathering products. In this study, the valence state analysis of group-d elements is used to reveal the electron transition mode and explain the colour formation reason of blue-black glass matrix. In terms of weathering products, in addition to the identification of common cerusite [PbCO3] and barite [BaSO4], the study also found the blue weathering product alforsite [Ba5(PO4)3Cl] for the first time. The study also makes reasonable assumptions about the reasons for their appearance. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) used in this study has positive significance for the study of the formation mechanism of glass colour. The scientific and technological analysis data of these two glass beads provide basic data for the related research of the lead-barium glass system produced in China, and also provide a certain scientific basis for the related protection research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the archaeometallurgical study of iron objects unearthed from the Niejiagou bone workshop dated between late Warring States period to the end of Qin dynasty. Through metallographic study and slag inclusion analysis, all analysed samples were confirmed to be made from cast iron as raw material, with the exception of NJG-34, which production technique cannot be positively confirmed. To convert cast iron into soft iron or steel, both annealing for decarburisation and fining techniques were applied, with the preference of annealing technique for the majority of the iron tool. The extremely fine-grained soft iron/steel microstructure, which was rarely observed in past research, represents a highly developed annealing technique with possible independent normalising operation adopted to reduce the grain size. Such a decarburisation method creates materials with exceptionally high quality, while the cost is also much higher compared to the finning process. Additionally, two iron objects with unique slag inclusions in terms of their morphology and compositional data were found, which possibly represent a new decarburisation method unknown to current research yet. Overall, this site displayed a unique technological choice on cast iron decarburisation methods, which can be argued to be the result of unlimited production cost considering this site was state controlled and served the Qin royalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]