Getting stoned in the Stone Age

Neolithic man seems to have discovered the pleasure of alcoholic beverages in China at about the same time as wine was first made in the Middle East.

Chinese pottery up to 9000 years old has been found with traces of certain chemicals, beeswax and tartaric acid. The chemicals indicated rice, the beeswax pointed to honey and the tartaric acid probably came from a fruit, possibly the Chinese hawthorn berry. All adding up to a good night out in the Stone Age.