Alcoholic beverages played an essential role in rituals in ancient societies. Here we report the first evidence for beer drinking in the context of burial ritual in early Holocene southern China. Recent archaeological investigations at Qiaotou (9,000–8,700 cal. BP) have revealed a platform mound containing human burials and high concentrations of painted pottery, encircled by a human-made ditch. By applying microfossil (starch, phytolith, and fungi) residue analysis on the pottery vessels, we found that some of the pots held beer made of rice (Oryza sp.), Job’s tears (Coix lacryma-jobi), and USOs. We also discovered the earliest evidence for using mold saccharification-fermentation starter in beer making, predating written records by 8,000 years. The beer at Qiaotou was likely served in rituals to commemorate the burial of the dead. Ritualized drinking probably played an integrative role in maintaining social relationships, paving the way for the rise of complex farming societies four millennia later.

Significant resources have been devoted to educating the public about the danger of driving under the influence of alcohol, including antidrunk-driving advertising. Most messages have struck a negative tone and resorted to fear appeals, which have limitations and can be ineffectual under certain conditions or for certain target groups of people. In other domains, researchers have shown that a positive message can be more powerful and effective than a negative message. This research focuses on the relative persuasiveness of positive versus negative antidrunk-driving messages and examines the effectiveness of highlighting different types of consequences of drunk driving.

There is increasing evidence that the early rice farming communities of southern China emerged from societies heavily dependent on acorns. Recent archaeological investigations have recovered large quantities of acorn remains from multiple archaeological sites (10,000–6000 cal. BP) in the Lower Yangtze River Valley, suggesting that acorns were a staple food for preagricultural societies. However, most previous studies have focused on taxonomical identification, leaving us a poor understanding of acorn processing technology. This research addresses this shortcoming by conducting a systematic microbotanical residue analysis (starch and phytolith) of pottery and grinding stones from the Shangshan culture (10,000–8200 cal. BP). The results show that the artifacts analyzed were predominantly used for processing acorns, and to a lesser extent, USOs and cereals. Combining the microbotanical data and an ethnographic study, we reconstruct a 10,000-year-old acorn processing technology. We suggest that intensive acorn processing provided an impetus for the increased production of pottery and grinding stones in early Holocene China.

The Peiligang culture (ca. 9000–7000 cal. BP) represents the first Neolithic settlements in the middle Yellow River Valley, marking the beginning of millet and rice farming in the region. While previous studies have focused primarily on identifying cultivated cereals, less attention has been given to plant harvesting and processing practices or environmental conditions. To address this gap, we present new phytolith data from the Peiligang site (8000–7600 cal. BP) to make three key contributions. First, we show that the Peiligang people utilized two microhabitats: hillslopes for dryland millet cultivation and alluvial plain for wetland resources. Second, we combine our findings with other archaeological evidence to reconstruct the environmental conditions of the Peiligang site, suggesting that it was a water-rich habitat. Finally, by analyzing phytolith remains of plant processing waste in middens, we reconstruct how people harvested and processed millets and rice at the site. This study sheds light on the plant-based subsistence strategies employed by the Peiligang people and offers insights into the environmental factors that contributed to the development of early farming in the middle Yellow River Valley.