The December 11, 2004 issue of Science News reports on a "fermented, winelike drink from rice, honey, and fruit" from Jiahu in northern China, which archaeological chemist Patrick E. McGovern describes as the oldest intoxicating beverage. Other contenders for earliest intoxicating beverage come from Iran where wine has been dated to 7400 years ago and beer brewing sites from about 5000 years ago. The Chinese beverage is between 8000 and 9000 years old.
China's Fermented Past
Ancient Wine
Reader Response:

"Thank you so much again for your interesting and informative newsletter.  However, as before, I must take issue with the assertion that this Chinese concoction is the "oldest known wine."  The Book of Genesis is the Book of Beginnings and it records how "Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine, and was drunken" (Genesis 9:20-21a).  Thus, Noah, whose family alone had survived the Universal Deluge, and whose sons and their descendants built postdiluvian culture on earth, produced the first wine and the first intoxicant in recorded human history.  The Chinese and the Iranians and all the other ancient vintners must have come along later."

First Known Writer

Ancient Silk
The same issue of Science News reports on the idea that ancient moths native to western Europe and Asia produced the first silk. According to Irene Good, a specialist in fiber analysis and anceint textile production at Harvard's Peabody Museum, some textiles survived the ravages of time because they were in "arid, freezing, or low oxygen environments, such as well-sealed tombs."