Excavation of the oldest tea leaves in the world, when have humanity been drinking tea?

ByTyler Fonville

A mass of plants was excavated from the ruins of Han Dynasty in Xi'an, China, and as a result of the analysis, it turned out that the identity of the plant is "tea leaves". The oldest tea leaves discovered so far were around the Song Dynasty era (960 - 1127) found in northern China, but the history of the oldest tea leaves in the world will be updated long before .

Earliest tea as evidence for one branch of the Silk Road across the Tibetan Plateau: Scientific Reports
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep18955

Scientists discover 2, 100 - year - old stash of "fine plucked" tea | Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/01/scientists-discover-2100-year-old-stash-of-fine-plucked-tea/

A large amount of tea leaves were found in the grave near Xi'an, China. A research team by Chinese scientists discovered and analyzed a small bunch of plants in the grave and found out that it was tea leaves picked up around the 1st century BC 2100 years ago.


The structure of the grave from which the tea leaves were excavated and the making of the interior were as follows and a large amount of tea leaves were found from the side hole in the northeastern part of the grave. In the Han Dynasty period, Xi'an was called Chang'an, the center of the Han Dynasty, which later served as the easternmost city of the Silk Road of the Commerce Road.


The tea leaves found in Xi'an were actually excavated around 2006, but recently the research team was able to analyze the ingredients, recently, finely loosening the mass of the leaves and included in the leaves Chemical components such as caffeine were analyzed.


From the analysis result, it seems that the identity of the mysterious plant finally turned out to be tea leaves. Furthermore, we have succeeded in almost identifying the type of tea, according to Nature Scientific Reports, "The discovered tea was a mixture of tea leaves, barley and other plants, that is, roasted the tea leaves It is still drunk in the Asian highland area that mixes with wheat, salt and gingerButter teaIt is very similar to. " It is also known that only young tea leaves that are raw materials for high-quality tea are used.


Similar tea leaves were found at the Gurgyam ruins in Western Tibet, and it was found from the analysis results that it was around the 2nd and 3rd century AD, which suggests that the Tibetan Plateau was already located around 200 AD in the Han Dynasty Beyond that, it turned out that trading of tea leaves was taking place.


The research team speculates that the tea leaves found this time may have been transported from Xi'an to Tibet by a dotted line course of the orange passing through the south side of the Tibetan Plateau on the map below. The course which was held in the later Tang dynasty period is indicated by the thick orange line on the map, but this discovery has provided evidence that there was a trade route connecting China and Asia before the Silk Road, China It may be possible to know the exact time when commerce began with another country.