In China, wine was found 2000 years old. What diseases did it help?

In May 2020, archaeologists excavatedterritory of the Chinese city of Sanmenxia. In particular, they were interested in a tomb about 2,000 years old. A tall warrior was buried in it, and next to him were his personal belongings. One of the most mysterious finds was swan-shaped vesselwith liquid insideyellow-brown color. Researchers weren't exactly sure about its safety, so they sent samples to the laboratory - what if it's a strong poison that you can't even inhale? It turned out that a wine drink had been kept inside the vessel all this time. Scientists have suggested that it was used for medicinal purposes and, perhaps, even considered a kind of "elixir of immortality." But why are the researchers so confident in their assumption? It turned out that they have good reason to think so.

Scientists and the mysterious drink of antiquity

Ancient wine of china

An unusual find by Chinese archaeologists wasreported in the Daily Mail. More than three liters of the mysterious alcoholic beverage were found inside an earthenware vessel with a curved spout. On the top of the vessel there is an opening for pouring in the drink, so the scientists assumed that the spout was intended for drinking. He was obviously kept and used only indoors and was not taken with them on hikes. The fact is that earthen vessels cannot boast of strength and can easily break. But at the same time, the clay product has stood the test of time and even retained a drink made thousands of years ago.

Unusual vessel and its contents

According to scientists, ancient wine surviveddue to two factors. First, the burial is at a depth of 4 meters. That is, no work on the surface could destroy the tomb and damage the artifacts inside it. Secondly, the unusual shape of the vessel played an important role in preserving the drink. The researchers are confident that the curved shape of the spout prevented the drink from evaporating, and thanks to this, they now have at their disposal as many as three liters of ancient wine. Only now it is not clear why scientists did not focus on the hole for pouring the drink from the top, because the liquid could evaporate through it.

The hole through which the wine was poured into the vessel

Why is wine useful?

Scientists also believe that the ancient warrior drank winenot to relax, but to heal diseases. There is no complete certainty about this yet, but there is an assumption that the recipe for the discovered drink was previously found in one of the ancient Chinese medical books. If so, what wine could be used for stop bleeding and reduce inflammation... At the moment, scientists are trying more carefullystudy the drink and find out from which components it is made. Perhaps the ancient people tried to make the so-called "elixir of immortality", which is said in many legends. Some no longer believe in its existence, but you never know?

The place where ancient artifacts were found

Unfortunately, the personality of the buriedthe person could not be identified, because his bones are poorly preserved. Scientists do not know either the age or the cause of death of a person. We can only say with certainty that he was a warrior. This is at least hinted at by the bronze helmet and swords made of jade and iron found next to his body. According to the calculations of the researchers, the height of the man was 1.8 meters. Considering that thousands of years ago people were mostly short, this was a very large warrior.

Items that were found next to the body of a warrior

We also wrote about the beneficial properties of wine here.

Short and tall people

In fact, in the territory of ancient China livedcompletely different people. How many such giants existed is unknown, but in addition to them there was at least one very small person. I told about the discovery of his remains at the end of 2019. Researchers believe that this man suffered from the so-called Laron syndrome. The body tissues of these people are immune to the effects of growth hormone, therefore, even having matured, their body length does not exceed 147 centimeters. A photograph of the skeleton of an unusual person can be found in this material.

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And about the tallest man in the world recentlyexcellent material was written by my colleague Alexander Bogdanov. This man's name was Robert Wadlow and at the time of his death he was 2.54 meters tall. You can read more about why it grows throughout life in this article.