Red beer consumption and elite utensils: The emergence of competitive feasting in the Yangshao culture, North China

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on a Neolithic Yangshao culture community with emergent social hierarchy associated with feasting activities. We analyzed the microfossil remains (micro-botanical and fungi) on 15 vessels excavated from the cemetery section of the Xipo site in northern China, highlighting four dakougang large vats with non-local characteristics from the two largest elite tombs (ca. 3300–2900 cal BC). The results revealed hongqujiu red beer, and the brewing method was likely using red mold Monascus as the main saccharification agent in a semi-solid-state fermentation condition, which is unprecedented in Yangshao cultural assemblages based on current data. This brewing method likely originated in the eastern coastal regions and may have been introduced to Xipo as an exotic and prestigious item. Large quantities of red beer and elite ceramics may have been used to advertise elite’s social status in competitive feasts. Such feasts may have been not only conducted by the living elites as a power competition, but also expected to be carried out by their deceased ancestors in the afterlife. The red beer appears to have played a pivotal role in this ritualized continuum between the present world and the supposed future life.